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^ S. 47th Congress, ) SENATE. ( Mis. Doo. 
 
 If 2d Session. ) ( So. 32. 
 
 1X82- U5-3 
 
 MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 
 
 ON THK 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 '3enja/viin Harvey Hill 
 
 (A SBNATOK FROM GEORGIA), 
 
 DELIVEBBD IN TBE 
 
 SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION, 
 
 January 25, 1883. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 1883. 
 
JOINT RESOLUTION to print certain'ealogies delivered in Congress upen the late Ben 
 
 jamin H. Hill. 
 
 Be it resolved hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
 America in Congress assembled, That there be printed twelve thousand copies 
 of the eulogies delivered in Congress upon the late Benjamin H. Hill, a Sena- 
 tor from the State of Georgia, of -which four thousand shall be for the use 
 of the Senate, and eight thousand for the use of the House of Representa- 
 tives ; and the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to have 
 printed a portrait of said Benjamin H. Hill to accompany each copy of said 
 eulogies ; and for the purpose of defraying the expense of engraving and print- 
 ing the said portrait, the sum of six hundred dollars, or so much thereof as 
 may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any money 
 in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Approved February 23, 1883. 
 
ANNOUNCEMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Death of Benjamin Harvey Hill, 
 
 ^ SENATOR FROM OKORGIA, 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 Monday, December 4, 1882. 
 
 Rev. J. J. Bullock, D. D., Chaplain to the Senate, offered the 
 following 
 
 PEAYER : 
 
 Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, it ever becomes us to ap- 
 proach Thee with the voice of gratitude and praise, for Thou art 
 good, O Lord, and Thou doest good to all, and Thy tender mercies 
 are over all Thy works. We thank Thee for all the goodness and 
 mercy which have crowned our past lives. Especially would we 
 offer up our humble and hearty thanks unto Thee for Thy watch- 
 fiil providence over us during the period of our separation, and 
 that we are permitted to meet together again under circumstances 
 of great mercy in the enjoyment of health, of reason, and of every 
 blessing. 
 
 Defend and deliver us from all evil. Guide us in the way of 
 wisdom, of truth, and of righteousness. May we have peace in 
 all our borders and prosperity in all our habitations. 
 
 Bless our rulers, the President of the United States, the Presi- 
 dent of the Senate, the Senators and Representatives in Congress, 
 
4 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 and all others in authority. Guide and assist them to discharge 
 aright the duties and responsibilities which devolve upon them as 
 the rulers of this great country. Fill our land ^vith the knowl- 
 edge of Thy truth and with the fruits of righteousness. May we 
 long live a united, happy, and prosperous people. 
 
 God be merciful unto us and bless us, and cause His face to shine 
 upon us, and give us pardon and peace and eternal life. Through 
 Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen. 
 
 Mr. Browx. Mr. President, it becomes my most painfiil duty, 
 in this oiEcial form, to announce to the Senate the death of my 
 late colleague, Hon. Benjamin H. Hill. That patriotic citizen, 
 grand orator, able statesmen, and Christian gentleman died at liis 
 residence, in the city of Atlanta, on the 1 6th day of August last. 
 The intelligence of the death of Senator Hill was received with 
 profound regret throughout the whole country. But the people of 
 Georgia, whom he had so ably served and who had so long de- 
 lighted to honor him, were the greatest sufferers. Grief-stricken, 
 they bowed their heads in sorrow, and will long mourn their 
 irreparable loss. 
 
 But, Mr. President, having performed the melancholy duty of 
 announcing the death of my late colleague to the Senate, the pro- 
 prieties of the occasion will not, at present, permit a further exten- 
 sion of these remarks. At a future day I shall ask a suspension of 
 the public business, that the Senate, in connection with the House 
 of Representatives, may pay fitting tribute to the character, the 
 virtues, the ability, and the services of the deceased Senator. 
 
 I now offer the following resolutions, and move their immediate 
 consideration : 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death of 
 Hon. Benjamin H. Hiil, a Senator from the State of Georgia. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these proceedings to the House 
 of Eepresentatives. 
 
 Resolved, As a token of respect to the memory of the deceased, that the Sen- 
 ate do now adjourn. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to unanimously ; and (at two o'clock 
 and forty-five minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 Death of Benjamin Harvey Hill, 
 
 A SENATOR FKOM GEORGIA. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE SENATE 
 Thursday, January 25, 1883. 
 
 The President pro tempore. This day having been set apart for 
 services in honor of the memory of our late brother Benjamin 
 H. Hill, the usual morning business mil be dispensed with. 
 
 Mr. Brown. I submit the resolutions which I send to the Chair, 
 and I ask for their immediate consideration. 
 
 The President pro tempore. The resolutions will be read. 
 
 The Acting Secretary read the resolutions, as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That earnestly desiring to show every possible mark of respect 
 to the memory of the Hon. Benjamin Q. Hill, late a Senator of the United 
 States from the State of Georgia, and to manifest the high estimate in which 
 his eminent public services and distinguished patriotism are held, the busi- 
 ness of the Senate be now suspended, that the friends and late associates of 
 Senator Hill may pay fitting tribute to his high character, his public serv- 
 ices, and his privata virtues. 
 
 Besohed, That in the death of Senator Hlll the country has sustained a 
 loss which has been felt and deplored to the utmost limits of the Union. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these resolutions 
 to the House of Representatives. 
 
 Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the de 
 ceased the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
LIFE AND CBARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 Address of Mr. Brown, of Georgia. 
 
 Mr. President: Benjamin Harvey Hii.l, whose life, charac- 
 ter, aud distiugiiished services are the subject of our present cou- 
 sideratiou, was born at Hillsborough, in Jasper County, Georgia, 
 on the 14th day of September, 1823. His father, Mr. John Hill, 
 was a gentleman of limited means, without a liberal education. 
 But he was a man of spotless character, of very strong common 
 sense, and a great deal of will power, who always exerted an ex- 
 tensive influence in his neighborhood and section. 
 
 The mother of the distinguished statesman, whose maiden name 
 was Parham, was a lady of very fine traits of character, whose pre- 
 cepts aud example exerted a most salutary and powerful influence 
 over her children. Mr. and Mrs. Hill were devoted and consist- 
 ent members of the Methodist Church. They lived and died in 
 the faith, and were eminently useful in their day aud generation. 
 
 When the subject of this sketch was about ten years old his 
 father moved from Hillsborough to the neighborhood called Long 
 Cane, in Troup County, Georgia, which was his home until the 
 (lay of his death. Mr. Hill not only trained his children to habits 
 of morality and Christian virtue, but he caused them to labor with 
 their hands and earn their Ijread by the sweat of their brow. Being 
 a sober, industrious, and persevering man, he accumulated prior to 
 his death a considerable property, and was able to give to each of 
 his nine children something quite respectable to start life with. His 
 son Benjamin was obedient and feithful to his parents ; he labored 
 hard to aid his father. While he was quite industrious, he was noted 
 as a very bright and promising youth. When he reached the age 
 of 18 years he was very anxious to improve the education which 
 he had been able to obtain in the country by going through a 
 course in the University of Georgia. But as the family was large 
 his father felt that he had not the means to spare, and do justice to 
 the other children, which were necessary to complete the collegiate 
 course of his sou. After a family consultation it was agreed by 
 the mother and liy a good and faithful aunt that they, out of the 
 
ADDRESS OF MIL BROWN, OF GEORGIA. 7 
 
 small means they had accumulated, would furnish one-half the 
 amount, the father furnishing the other half. Under this arrange- 
 ment the gifted son was enabled to enter the State University. 
 Before he left home he promised his mother, if the means could 
 be raised to enable him to complete his collegiate course, that he 
 would take the first honor in his class. 
 
 In the university the young student was industrious, attentive, 
 and energetic. His progress was rapid, and his mental develop- 
 ment very gratifying to his numerous friends in the university and 
 elsewhere, who watched his progress and the development of his 
 genius with great pride and gratification. When the commence- 
 ment came at the end of the senior year, the faculty unanimously 
 awarded the first honor to young Hill.- He also took all the 
 honors of the literary society to which he belonged. Ajid in a famil- 
 iar letter to a friend he said, within the last few years, that was the 
 proudest day of his life, and that nothing ever afforded him more 
 gratification than it did to write to his mother the news that filled 
 his heart with so much joy. 
 
 Soon after the close of his collegiate career Mr. Hill was mar- 
 ried to Miss Caroline Holt, of Athens, Georgia, a young lady be- 
 longing to one of Georgia's oldest and most honored families ; of 
 good fortune, great amiability, beauty, and accomplishments. The 
 happy and brilliant young couple settled in La Grange, in Troup 
 County, where Mr. Hill, who had already studied law and been 
 admitted to the bar, commenced the practice of his profession. 
 From the very commencement, the tact, research, and ability with 
 which he conducted his earliest cases gave bright promise of his 
 future eminence. He grew rapidly at the bar until he was soon 
 employed in every important case in his county, and his professional 
 fame spread into the adjoining counties of the State and he became 
 the center figure at the bar in the courts of his circuit. 
 
 In connection with his legal practice Mr. Hill purchased a 
 valuable plantation, and with the slaves that he obtained by his 
 wife and by inheritance from his father, and purchased from time 
 to time out of his incomes, he conducted the business of planting 
 on au extensive and profitable scale. 
 
8 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. WILL. 
 
 Mr. Hill started life an ardent Whig ; and it could not be ex- 
 pected that a young lawyer of his brilliant talents could long keep 
 out of politics. In 1851 he was elected to the house of represent- 
 atives of the legislature of Georgia, where he soon rose to the 
 position of one of the ablest debaters and most influential members 
 of that body. • After the legislature adjourned ho resumed the 
 practice of his profession with great skill and energy. 
 
 The old Whig party having in the mean time been dissolved in 
 Georgia, Mr. Hill in 1855 became a member of what was known 
 as the American party, and was nominated by that part}' as their 
 candidate for Congress, in opposition to Hon. Hiram Warner, the 
 Democratic nominee. The race was an exciting one. Judge War- 
 ner was one of the ablest and most profound men of the State, 
 though not a distinguished orator. Mr. Hill canvassed the dis- 
 trict, and usually had the advantage everywhere in the popular 
 applause. He was defeated, however. Judge Warner securing a 
 small majority. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Hill was a candidate for elector for the State at 
 large on the Fillmore ticket. He canvassed the State with great 
 energy, al)ility, and eloquence. From the day on which he made 
 his first grand effort in support of his candidate must be dated his 
 recognition as the leader of his party in Georgia. During the 
 campaign he met the leading Democratic speakers at various points. 
 He had an animated discussion with Mr. Stephens at Lexington, 
 and with General Toombs at Washington, Georgia. His most ar- 
 dent admirers were entirely content with the ability he displayed 
 in these contests with his distinguished opponents. 
 
 From that time forward his influence with his party was un- 
 bounded. They not only trusted and followed him but he con- 
 trolled them absolutely. 
 
 In 1857 the author of this .sketch was nominated by the Demo- 
 cratic party of Georgia as their candidate for governor, and Mr. 
 Hill was nominated by the American party for the same position. 
 We were both young and ardent. I was 36 years of age, he 34. 
 We had never met till the day of our first joint discussion, when 
 we were leading our respective parties as opposing candidates. The 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. BROWN. OF GEORGIA. 9 
 
 contest was energetic and exciting. Mr. Hill displayed great 
 powers of eloquence in the debate-;, and wa.s an exceedingly inter- 
 esting and formidable competitor. The contest ended in the elec- 
 tion of the Democratic candidate. 
 
 Mr. Hill then stood among the very first men of the country 
 a.s a political debater, and occupied a very high rank as a lawyer 
 and as an advocate at the bar. 
 
 In 1859 he wa.s elected by his party to the senate of Georgia. 
 He exhibited great power in the debates of the session, and was 
 without a rival the leader of his party in the legislature. 
 
 In 1860 he was again a candidate for Presidential elector, and 
 canvassed the State for Bell and Everett for President and Vice- 
 President. His speeches were exceedingly able and brilliant. 
 
 The election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, as the South 
 regarded it, upon a strictly sectional platform, brought about the 
 overwhelming discontent in that section which resulted in the se- 
 cession of the Southern States and the unfortunate civil war. When 
 a convention to consider this question was called in Georgia, Mr. 
 Hill was with great unanimity elected a member of it from the 
 county of Troup. He was an avowed Union man, and in conjunc- 
 tion with Alexander H. Stephens, Herschell V. Johnson, Linton 
 Stephens, and some others, leading men of Georgia, he opposed 
 secession ably and earnestly until the final passage of the resolution 
 that it was the right and duty of Georgia to secede. When the 
 ordinance was passed he signed it, taking position, as did the other 
 distinguished gentlemen whose names I have mentioned, that a.s a 
 Georgian he-^wed his allegiance first to the State of his nativity, 
 of his manhood, and of his home; that her people were his people, 
 and her fate should be his fate. 
 
 After the State had seceded, Mr. Hill was chosen one of the 
 delegates to the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama. 
 In that convention he took an able and distinguished part. Soon 
 after the convention adjourned, when the time came to elect Con- 
 federate senators, he was chosen for the long term, and took his 
 seat in the Confederate senate, which he occupiedtill the end of the 
 war. He was made chairman of the judiciary committee, and had 
 the confidence of President Davis to the fullest extent, and was 
 
10 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 regarded the ablest supporter of Mr. Davis's policy in the senate. 
 And when the cause was waning, and our people were deeply de- 
 pressed, Mr. Hill left the senate and went upon the stump, and 
 was making an able efibrt to arouse the spirits of the people of 
 Georgia and of tlie Confederacy to renewed resistance when General 
 Lee surrendered. 
 
 Soou after the Confederacy failed, when many of those who had 
 been considered the leaders wei-e arrested, Mr. Hill was among 
 the number. While President Davis was consigned to a cell in 
 Fortress Monroe, and Vice-President Stephens to one in Fort 
 Warren, and the author of this sketch, with a number of distin- 
 guislied Confederates, was incarcerated in the Carroll Prison in this 
 city, Mr. Hill was assigned to quarters in Fort Lafayette, in New 
 York harbor. 
 
 After the release of Mr. Hill from prison, he returned to 
 Georgia and resumed the practice of his profession with great energy 
 and splendid success. He pursued his profession, taking little part 
 in politics, until after the passage of the reconstruction acts in March, 
 1867, when it was again the misfortune of the author of this sketch 
 to differ with his former opponent. 
 
 After our resources were exhausted and our armies had surren- 
 dered, I thought I saw that we were in the power and at the mercy 
 of a conquering Government, and I advised the people of Georgia 
 to acquiesce promptly in the terms dictated by Congress ; to take 
 part in the convention which was called by the military command- 
 er in charge of the district embracing the State of Georgia; to 
 send our best men as members ; to secure the best constitution pos- 
 sible, and under it try to live a peaceable life and labor to restore 
 prosperity at the earliest day within our power. A majority of the 
 wliite people of Georgia differed with me on that point — Mr. Hill 
 among them. He believed by an able and bold opposition to the 
 measures prescribed by Congress, and by resistance to them in every 
 manner not forcible, the people of the Northern and Western 
 States would condemn the action of Congress, restore the Democratic 
 party to power, and we would be saved much of the humiliation 
 we had been exposed to by acts of Congress which were regarded 
 by our people as illiberal and unjust. 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. BROWN, OF GEORGIA. H 
 
 When Mr. Hill espoused the cause on this line, he did it with 
 all the ability, earnestuess, energy, and enthusiasm of his nature. 
 He attended the first Democratic convention held in Georgia, and 
 was the leading spirit and director of it. In the face of the mili- 
 tary, with undaunted spirit, he made what was known a.s his " Davis 
 Hall speech," in the city of Atlanta, which, as a masterpiece of de- 
 nunciation, philippic, and invective, lias scarce!)' ever been equaled, 
 except in what were known as his "Bush-arbor speech" and his 
 "Notes on the Situation." The magic power of his declamation 
 and of his denunciation were overwhelming and terrific. Probably 
 no one of the masters of elocution who has lived on this continent 
 has surjjassed it. 
 
 As the author of this sketch had affiliated with the reconstruc- 
 tion party, his course shared liberally in the overwhelming and 
 terrific denunciation of the great orator. Refei'ence to the replies 
 which were made to these vigorous assaults is not appi'opriate to 
 this occasion. The period was a stormy one. The debates were 
 bitter and even vindictive on both sides. It was a time of mad- 
 ness. Social relations were sundered in many cases, and there was 
 for a time an upheaval of the very foundations of society. During 
 this extraordinary period, when the whole political fabric of the 
 State seemed to rock amid the throes of dissolution, no one figured 
 so grandly as Mr. Hill, and no one was so idolized as he. 
 
 But the people of the South were doomed to an unconditional 
 surrender. We were compelled to accept the reconstruction meas- 
 ures. When we rejected the fourteenth Constitutional amendment, 
 the fifteenth wa,s proposed, and we were afterward compelled to ac- 
 cept both before we could be readmitted to representation in the 
 Congress of the United States. 
 
 After the reconstruction of the States was completed under the 
 plan dictated by Congress, and the Constitutional amendments were 
 adopted and incorporated into and became part of that instrument, 
 it was discovered by all that both the Congress and the courts would 
 unquestionably sustain those new provisions of the Constitution as 
 part of the fundamental law of this country, and that the Govern- 
 ment would be administered accordingly. 
 
 In this state of things, in the fall of 1870 Mr. Hill became 
 
12 LIFE Am) CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN B. HILL. 
 
 fully oonvinoed of the fact that further resistance was useless. And 
 while he believed he had saveil much to the State by the course he 
 had pursued in rallying and holding the people together and re- 
 organizing the Democracy upon a firm basis, he did not hesitate to 
 advise the people of Georgia to cease further resistance to what was 
 then au accomplished fact. 
 
 Seeing that further resistance was fruitless, he considered it 
 would be criminal to continue to throw obstacles in the way of the 
 Government. This announcement on his part exposed him for a 
 time to severe criticism by those who did not understand his mo- 
 tives. But he was as firm and lion-like in maintaining the stand 
 he then took as he had been in the terrible resistance which he 
 made to the reconstruction measures as long as he entertained any 
 hope that resistance might be successful. From this time forward 
 Mr. Hill renewed his allegiance to the Government to the fullest 
 extent, and did all in his power to produce quiet and contentment, 
 which he saw were necessary to a return of peace and prosperity 
 to our people. 
 
 During the period that intervened, for the next two or three 
 years, he pursued his law practice with his usual ability and suc- 
 cess, and also again embarked in a large planting business in 
 Southwestern Georgia. 
 
 But the people of Georgia were not content that he should re- 
 main a private citizen. They desired the benefit of his superb 
 talents in the national councils ; and on the death of Hon. Gar- 
 net McMillan, who was a member of the House of Representatives 
 from the ninth district of Georgia, Mr. Hill, by an overwhelm- 
 ing majority, was elected to fill the vacancy ; and he took his seat 
 in the House. His course there is familiar to most if not all who 
 hear me. Some splendid exhibitions of his oratorical powers in 
 that body soon gave him an extensive national reputation. His 
 celebrated discussion with the distiuguislied Representative from 
 Maine, Mr. Blaine, was one of the most memorable that has ever 
 occurred in the House of Representatives. Each of the able an- 
 tagonists sustained his cause in a manner entirely satisfactory to 
 his friends. Heated, earnest, and almost vituperative as the de- 
 bate was between them, they learned to know each other's ability 
 
ADDRESS OF MB. BROWN, OF GEOBGIA. 13 
 
 and worth and were mutually benefited. Each was soon called by 
 his State to. occupy a seat in this Chamber; and as their acquaint- 
 ance was prolonged, it grew first into friendship and then into an 
 earnest admiration of each other. The letter of condolence sent 
 by Mr. Blaine on the death of Mr. Hill did honor alike to his 
 head and his heart, and was highly appreciated by the numerous 
 friends of the deceased Senator. 
 
 As to the course of Senator Hill in this body and the splendid 
 triumphs of his eloquence and his genius which have been here ex- 
 hibited I need not speak. They are well known to the Senate, 
 and will long be remembered by his friends, his compeers, and an 
 appreciative public. 
 
 As I have been compelled, in order to give correctly an outline 
 of the life and career of the great Senator, to make a passing refer- 
 ence to the early antagonism and at one time bitterness that ex- 
 isted between us, it affords me great pleasure to state that in later 
 life, when we knew each other better and were frequently thrown 
 together, in times less stormy and less revolutionary, when it be- 
 came our duty to consult together to determine what was most for 
 the public good and what would soonest restore prosperity to our 
 State and our section, our relations were changed. 
 
 I had retired from public life and had no expectation that I 
 should ever enter it again. But I was unwilling that Mr. Hill's 
 splendid talents should be confined simply to the practice of his 
 profession, and I desired to see him in the councils of the Union. 
 
 When he ran for the House of Representatives, though not in 
 his district, I had a host of friends there who sustained him. 
 When he became a candidate for the Senate my friends held the 
 balance of power ; and while I had great regard for the gentleman 
 who then occupied the seat, I felt that Mr. Hill could do more to 
 serve the State in that capacity than the incumbent. And when 
 Governor Smith retired from' the contest on the day of election 
 my friends gave Mr. Hill their cordial support. 
 
 At a later period, when I was called unexpectedly back into the 
 service of my State and took my seat in this Chamber, he met me 
 with the cordiality which our relations then justified. During our 
 
14 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BEyjAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 service together that cordiality ripened into intimate and confi- 
 dential friendship. He frequently said to me, " I regret that we 
 had not sooner known each other better. I regret that we were 
 thrown, when young and ardent, into the positions of antagonism 
 which we then occupied." One of the last letters I received from 
 him before the sad event which shocked the Union was full of con- 
 fidence and cordial friendship. Referring to the past, he said, 
 " Who would then have thought that you were during my lifetime 
 to become my most trusted and confidential friend ? " No one felt 
 more keenly than I did his loss, and no one shed tears of more sin- 
 cere regret. A great man has fallen. The whole coimtry feels 
 the shock. As a citizen he was patriotic, trusted, and beloved ; 
 as a kind and indulgent husband and father few persons can justly 
 be compared to him. 
 
 Mr. Hill's love for his mothei-, and the veneration with which 
 he cherished her memory af^er her death, were beautiful and touch- 
 ing. It was his habit when at home to go every day into his par- 
 lor where her portrait hung, and to look tenderly in her face, and 
 to bow to her on retiring. A day or two before his death, when 
 he was too feeble to support himself without assistance, he re- 
 quested his attendants to carry him into the parlor, that he- might 
 take a last look at the likeness of the face that was so dear to him. 
 On approaching the likeness he was visibly affected. He gazed 
 lovingly upon the form, and as his heart heaved with emotion and 
 his eyes filled with tears he said : " I shall soon be with her 
 again." Then, bowing most reverently and affectionately, he was 
 borne from the parlor, never more in this world to look upon the 
 form so tenderly cherished by him. 
 
 But, Senators, this sketch would be incomplete without a refer- 
 ence to the religious character of Georgia's great statesman. As I 
 have already premised, his father and mother were earnest, devout, 
 and consistent members of the Methodist Church. At fourteen 
 years of age Bex.tamin H. Hill became a member of that church. 
 He was faithful and zealous, and lived a very exemplary life. 
 During the period of his youth and early manhood he was noted 
 for his religious devotion and his piety. For years after his happy 
 
ADDRESS OF MB. BROWN, OF GEORGIA. 15 
 
 marriage with his lovely wife he and his family surrounded the 
 altar daily together in prayer and devotion. 
 
 At a later period of life, when he became more engrossed with the 
 courts and absorbed in politics and other public duties, he was thrown 
 much away from his home, and his mind was diverted to other 
 objects, which made heavy drafts upon his time and attention. And 
 during this most active periotl of his public career he was less at- 
 tentive to his religious duties, which was afterwards to him a source 
 of great regret. But when the disease which finally terminated in 
 liis untimely death had seized upon him, its inroads were slow, and 
 his suiferings were very great. During this long and trying perio<l 
 his mind reverted back to the family altar, to his church rela- 
 tions, and to his religious privileges and duties. He calmly sur- 
 veyed the situation and reviewed his life, and his faith became 
 still more firmly anchored within the veil. He met his sufferings 
 with a patience and Christian fortitude that in its lessons and teach- 
 ings were absolutely sublime. 
 
 While his sufferings were intense and his pain often excruciating 
 he never murmured, but said, " Let God's will be done, not mine." 
 Nothing pleased him better than the conversation of ministers of 
 the Gospel on religious subjects. He spoke of the atonement made 
 by our Saviour, of its efficiency, and of the hope that he enter- 
 tained. He delighted to dwell on these siibjects. While he suf- 
 fei'ed from day to day and from night to night nothing disturbed 
 his equanimity, nothing for a moment brought a murmur to his 
 lips. Brilliant and surpassing as had been many of the triumphs of 
 his life, his Christian resignation and fortitude and his triumph in 
 death were much more brilliant, much more sublime. 
 
 When his powers of speech had failed and his once eloquent 
 tongue had ceased to articulate and he was gently and peaceftilly 
 sinking into the embrace of death that good man. Rev. C. A. 
 Evans, pa.stor of his church, visited him, and approaching him 
 with great gentleness and kindness spoke words of consolation. 
 The dying Senator, ^vith a heart full of love and his countenance 
 beaming with heavenly visions, after struggling with the impedi- 
 ment that bound his tongue in silence, uttered audibly his last sen- 
 tence: "Almost home." 
 
16 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 Thus quietly and peacefully passed away one whose memory we 
 all affectionately cherish. 
 
 But, Senators, our late companion is not dead. He has passed 
 behind the veil, and his form is no longer seen by us. His body 
 sleeps in the grave, but his immortal spirit rests in the paradise of 
 God. 
 
 Mr. President, in the demise of Senator Hill the whole Union 
 has sustained a severe loss. But the affliction of the people of 
 Georgia is greater than any other can be ; they knew him ; they 
 loved him ; they honored and trusted him ; they almost idolized 
 him. And when it was announced that Benjamin H. Hill was 
 no more they bowed their heads in sorrow, and will long mourn 
 their irreparable loss. 
 
 But, Mr. President, Senator Hill possessed intellectual qualities 
 of the highest order. His genius was acknowledged by all. In 
 debate he was surpassingly grand and convincing. As a logician 
 he had few equals; as an impassioned orator he had no superior; 
 as a lawyer he occupied the first rank ; as an advocate at the bar 
 he was absolutelv overwhelming ; as an American Senator he was 
 the peer of any one. 
 
 When I reflect upiui the great oratorical powers of Senator HiLL, 
 the splendor of his genius, tiie simplicity of his heart, and the pa- 
 triotic impulses of his nature, as I had learned in later life to know 
 them, I conclude tliat the day is not distant when some great 
 American poet, burning with patriotic zeal as well as poetic fire, 
 will weave into verse, a tribute to his memory as glowing and as 
 just, as the immortal English bard, paid the great Irish orator, when 
 Byron sang: 
 
 Ever glorious Grattan ! the best of the good! 
 
 So simple in heart, so sublime in the rest; 
 With all which Demosthenes -wanted endued, 
 
 And his rival or victor in all he possessed. 
 
ADDHUSS of MR. INGALLS, OF KANSAS. 17 
 
 Address of Mr. Ingalls, of Kansas. 
 
 Bex. Hii-L lias gone to tlie undiscovered coinitrv. 
 
 AVhetlier his journey thither was but one step acro.ss an imper- 
 ceptible frontier, or whether an interminable ocean, black, unfluc- 
 tuating, and voiceless, stretches between these earthly coasts and 
 those invisible shores — we do not know. 
 
 Whether on that August morning after death he saw a more 
 glorious sun rise with unimaginable splendor above a celestial hori- 
 zon, or whether his apathetic and unconscious ashes still sleep in 
 cold obstruction and insensible oblivion — we do not know. 
 
 Whether his strong and subtle energies found instant exercise 
 in another forum, whether his dextrous and disciplined faculties 
 are now contending in a liigher senate than ours for supremacy, or 
 whether his powers were dissipated and dispersed with his parting 
 breath — we do not kno\^-. 
 
 Whether his passions, ambitions, an<l affections still swav, at- 
 tract, and impel, whether he yet remembers us as we remember 
 him — we do not know. 
 
 These are the unsolved, the insoluble i)roblems of mortal life 
 and human destiny, which prompted the troubled patriarch to ask 
 that momentous (piestion for which the centuries have given no 
 answer — "If a man die shall he live again?" 
 
 Every man is the center of a circle whose fatal circumference he 
 cannot pass. Within its narrow confines he is potential, beyond 
 it he perishes; and if immortality be a splendid but delusive dream, 
 if tlie incompleteness of every career, even the longest and most 
 ftjrtunate, be not supplemented and perfected after its termination 
 here, then he who dreads to die should fear to live, for life is a 
 tragedy more desolate and inexplicable than death. 
 
 Of all the dead whose obsecjuies we have pau.sed to .solemnize in 
 this Chamber I recall no one whose untimely fate seems so lament- 
 able, and yet so rich in prophecy of etex'nal life, as that of Senator 
 Hill. He had reached the meridian of his years. He stood upon 
 the high plateiui uf middle life, in that serene atmosphere where 
 2h 
 
18 LIFf: AND CHAIiACTEIt OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 temptation no longer assails, where the elamorous passions no more 
 distract, and wliere tlie conditions are most favorable for noble and 
 enduring achievement. His ujjward path had been throngh stormy 
 adversity and contention such as infrequently falls to tiie lot of men. 
 Thonoh not without the tendency to meditation, reverie, and intro- 
 spectiou which accomjianies genius, his temperament was palestric. 
 He wa.s competitive and unpeaceful. He was born a polemic and 
 controversialist, intellectually pugnacious and combative, so that 
 he was impelled to defend any position that might be assailed or to 
 attack any positiiui tiiat might be intrenched, not because the de- 
 fense or the assault were essential, but because the positions were 
 maintained and that those who held them became by that fact 
 alone his adversaries. This tendency of his nature made his orbit 
 erratic. He wa.s meteoi'ic rather than planetary, and flashed with 
 irregular splendor rather than shoue with steady and penetrating- 
 rays. His advocacy of any cause was fearless to the verge of te- 
 merity. He appeared to be indifferent to applause or censure for 
 their own sake. He accepted intrepidly any conclusions that he 
 reached, without inquiring whether they were politic or expedient. 
 
 To such a spirit partisanship was unavoidable, but with Senator 
 Hill it did not degenerate into bigotry. He was capable of broad 
 generosity, and extended to his opponents the same unreserved 
 candor which he demanded for himself. His oi'atory was impetu- 
 ous and devoid of artifice. He was not a posturer nor plirase- 
 monger. He was too intense, too earnest, to employ the cheap and 
 paltry decorations of discourse. He never reconnoitered a hostile 
 position nor approached it by stealthy parallels. He could not lay 
 siege to an enemy, nor beleaguer him, nor open trenches, and sap 
 and mine. His method was the charge and the onset. He was the 
 Murat of senatorial debate. Not many men ot this generation 
 have been better equipped for parliamentar)' warfare than he, with 
 iiis commanding presence, his siuewy diction, his contident and im- 
 perturbable self-control. 
 
 But in the maturity of his powers and his fame, with unmeasured 
 opportunities for achievement appai'ently before him, with great 
 designs unaccomplished, surrounded by the proud and affectionate 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. VEST, OF MISSOURI. 19 
 
 solicitude of a great constituency, the pallid messenger with the 
 inverted torch beckoned him to depart. There are few scenes in 
 history more tragic than that pi'otracted combat with death. No 
 man had greater inducemeut8 to live. But in the long struggle 
 against the inexorable advances of an insidious and mortal malady 
 he did not falter nor repine. He retreated with the aspect of a vic- 
 tor ; and though he succumbed, he seemed to <'onquer. His sun 
 went down at noon, but it sank amid the prophetic splendors of au 
 eternal dawn. 
 
 With more than a hen>'s courage, with more than a martyr's 
 fortitude, he waited the approach of the inevitable hour and went — 
 to the undiscovered country. 
 
 Address of Mr. Vest of Missouri. 
 
 Mr. President, in November, 1861, 1 first met Mr. Hill in the 
 provisional congress of the Confederate States. 
 
 The Confederacy wa.s just entering upon its brief and stormy ex- 
 istence. Its capital had recently been removed from ^lontgomery to 
 Richmond, and Jefferson Davis by a majority of only one vote in 
 the provisional congress Iiad been elected president over Robert 
 Toombs. 
 
 Surrounded by unexampled dilBculties, moral and physical, iso- 
 lated and alone, with the prejudices of the entire civilized world 
 against them, and confronted in battle with overwhelming odds, 
 the Confederate congress was called upon to meet not only the ordi- 
 nary questious and emergencies attending the formation of a new 
 government, but to grapple also with the exigencies and demands 
 of a great war, a war not for conqu&^t or jiolicy, but for existence. 
 
 Mr. Hill had earnestly opjiosed secession up to the last mo- 
 ment, but finding that the people of Georgia were determined to 
 separate from the Union, he surrendered his personal opinion, 
 and pledged himself fidly and unreservedly to the cause of the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 Opposed to secession, with habitjs of thought and education ut- 
 terly averse to revolution, the strange vicissitudes of this stormy 
 
20 LIFE A\D CHARACTER OF BEXJAMIX H. TJILL. 
 
 period soou fouud him tlif leader of the administration party in 
 the Confederate congress. 
 
 Within the limits of an address like this it wonld neitlier l)e 
 possible nor proper for me to attempt an analysis of the causes 
 whi<'h placed ^Ir. Hili. in this position ; bnt chief among them 
 was the fact that having once pledged himself to the Confederacy 
 he could see no liope of success except in supporting the president 
 chosen hv the people ; and having so declared himself, his great 
 ability naturally made him the exponent and defender of the pol- 
 icv of the administration. 
 
 Although surrounded bv difficulties and dangers almost without 
 parallel, and confronted by a common peril, it was very soon evi- 
 dent that personal rivalry, the attrition of diverse opinion, and the 
 fierce passions of a revolutionary era had built up most determined 
 opposition to Mr. Davis among the leaders oi the South. 
 
 That the president of the C'onfederate States wa.s loyal to the 
 people he led, in every fiber of his nature, cannot be doubted save 
 1)V the blindest prejudice ; and this being granted, whether he was 
 mistaken in the conduct of the war or in the policy of iiis admin- 
 istration should be a sealed hook to all tliose who sympathized and 
 suffered with him. It is enough to say now that never was any 
 public man assailed by opponents so formidable as those who at- 
 tacked the president of the Confederate States. 
 
 Toombs, the Mirabeau of the revolution; Yancey, whose lips 
 were touchetl with fire, now the honey of persuasion and then tiie 
 venom of invective ; Wigfall, brilliant, aggressive, and relentless — 
 this was the great triumvirate which assailetl Mr. Davis's adminis- 
 tration. No power of description can do justice to the ability, elo- 
 fpienee, or bitterness of the deljates in which Mr. Hill, single- 
 handed but undaunted, met his great opponents. As the war pro- 
 gressed and the fortunes of the Confederacy became each year more 
 desperate, the bitterness and violence of tliis parliamentary conflict 
 increa.sed, until scenes of actual personal collision occurred on tiie 
 floor of the Confederate senate. 
 
 The participants liave pa.ssed beyond this world's judgment, and 
 the issues which stirred those fierce pasfsions are dead with the gov- 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. VEST, UF MISSOURI. 21 
 
 ernmeiit tliey atfeotetl, but tlie few wlio heanl these debates can 
 uever forget tlie matchless eh)queuee and logic that mingled with 
 the roar of hostile guns around the beleaguered capital of the Con- 
 federacy. 
 
 ReUictaut to embrace the Confederate cause, Mr. Hii.l was the 
 last to leave it, and I well remendjer that on my way from Rich- 
 mond, after preparations had been made to al)andon the capital, and 
 it was well known that the cause was lost, I met him in Columbus, 
 Greorgia, engaged in the task of rallying the people of his State in 
 what was then a hopeless struggle. \Yhen I told him of recent 
 events, of which he had not heard, he said, "All then is over, and 
 it only remains for me to share the fate of the people of Georgia." 
 
 How well he redeemefl this pledge the hearts of his people will 
 answer. Thrown into ]>rison, strip])ed of all except life, his courage 
 never failed, and in the darkest hour, when tiie wolves were tear- 
 ing the victims of tiie war as the coyote the wounded deer, his elo- 
 ((ucnt voice was never for one instant silent until Georgia, torn and 
 bleeding but yet splendid and beautiful, once more stood erect in the 
 sisterhood of sovereign States. Xor did he ever under any tempta- 
 tion .so far forget his manhood and honor as to — 
 
 Crook the i)regnant hinges of the knee 
 Where thrift may follow fawuiug. 
 
 Accepting fully and without reservation all the legitimate conse- 
 
 1 quences of defeat, and resolutely turning to the future with its 
 
 duties and obligations, ho still retained his self-respect, and never 
 
 did he— 
 
 Bend low, and in a bondsman's key, 
 
 With 'bated breath, and whispering humbleness. 
 
 Say this — 
 
 I'air sir, you sj>it on me on Wednesday last; 
 
 You spurn'd me such a day; another time 
 
 You caird me — dog ; and for these tourtesies 
 
 I'll lend yim thus much moneys. 
 
 I knew Mr. Hill well, and under circumstances which cnal)lcd 
 me to judge accurately his attributes and (qualities. Ijike all men 
 of great intellect, he was oflen accused of inconsistency because he 
 absolutely refused to be governed by the routine thought of others, 
 and had always the courage to change an opinion if he believed it 
 
22 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 erroneous. His courage, indeed, hoth of conviction and expression, 
 was not excelled by tliat of any man, and his fortitude under the 
 2;reatest misfortunes extorted tlie admiration of even his enemies. 
 
 In an age when ealuinny and slander are the ordinary weapons 
 of political warfare, and personal scandal the most delicate morsel 
 for the public appetite, Mr. HiLL was not exempt from the attacks 
 of the foul and loathsome creatures who crawl about the footsteps 
 of every public man, but he bore himself always with a dignity 
 which commanded the respect of all. 
 
 And what can lie said of the heroism, the uncomplaining aud un- 
 faltering courage, \\itii which he met the irony of fate that brought 
 him the torture of a lingering death in the destruction of that tongue 
 and voice which had so (jiteii awakened with their eloipience the 
 echoes of this Hall ! 
 
 In all public and private history thei'c is no sadder page than 
 this, and from it we turn away in silent awe and reverence. 
 
 In his political opinions Mr. Hill was governed by the teaching 
 of Madison, and no one wlio heard his speech in the Senate on May 
 10, 1879, the greatest speech in my judgment delivered here within 
 the last quarter of a century, will ever forget his tribute to the 
 statesman who can he justly termed tlie father of the Constitution. 
 Said Mr. Hill : 
 
 Sir, I want to say here now — ami I feel it a privilege that I can say it — I be- 
 lieve all the angry discussion, all the troubles that have come upon this coun- 
 try, have sprung from the failure of the people to compiehend the one great fact 
 that the Government uu(b>r which we live has no model; it is partly national 
 aud partly Federal; an idea whicli was to the Greeks a stumbling block, aud 
 to the Romans foolishness, aud to the Republican party an insurmountable 
 paradox, bnt to the patriots of this country it is the power of liberty unto the 
 salvation of the people. Aiul if the people of this country would realize tliat 
 fact, all these crazy wranglings as to whether we live under a Federal or a 
 national Government would cease ; they would understand that we live under 
 both ; that it is a composite Government ; that it was intended liy the framers 
 that the Union shall be faithful in defense of the States, that the States 
 shall he harmonious in support of the Union, and that the Union and the 
 States shall be faithful aud harmonious in the support and the maintenance 
 of the rights and the liberty of the people. 
 
 Mr. Hi.LL was not only an orator, liut a lawyer in the front of 
 his profession. His mind was l)road yet analytical; and he was 
 
ADDBESS OF ME. MOIiUAX, OF ALABAMA. 23 
 
 averse tu all radical and iwolutiouaiy luftiiod.s. lu my cuuceptiuii 
 of his iutellec't and eloc^uence I always associate him with Virgniaud, 
 the leader of the French Giromlists. While neither will stand in 
 history with the greatest party leaders, yet a.s orators ami parlia- 
 mentary debaters they are entitled tu places in the first rank. 
 
 Ended are his conflicts, his triumphs, and defeats. The strong, 
 aggressive intellect is at rest. The clarion voice which could " wield 
 at will the fierce democracy" is hushed forever. 
 
 Out upon the shoreless ocean his bark lias drifted; l)ut it has 
 not carried away all of the life that has ended. Never to mortal 
 hands wa.s given a legacy more pr(>cious than that left to the peo- 
 ple of Georgia in the memory of her great son wIk) gave his life 
 to her service and his latest prayer to her honor and welfare. 
 
 Orator, .statesman, patriot, farewell I Let Georgia guard well 
 thy grave ; for in her soil rest not the ashes of one whose life ha.s 
 done more to illustrate her mauiiood, whose genius has added such 
 glory to her name. 
 
 Address of Mr. Morgan, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. President: Alabama, the eldest daughter of Georgia, a |>- 
 proaches this sad ot^casion with a proud but stricken spirit. I Avill 
 utter no word in praise of the late Senator that all the people of 
 that State and of the South will not sanction with heartfelt re- 
 sponses. 
 
 This is an occ«si(m when the pure serenity of truth need not 
 be clouded with undeserved eulogy of the dead. It would be an 
 injustice to the sincerity of his character, which his own history 
 and example would condemn, to speak of the decea.sed Senator in 
 terms that would be misleading. 
 
 A strong and rugged character such as belonged to Bex.i.vmix 
 H. Hill cannot be correctly portrayed in the soft light of adula- 
 tion or by mere smoothness of expression or in speech tem- 
 pered with hesitancy and caution. He was a bold, daring, and 
 powerful man in his iutellectual and physical organism, and his 
 convictions when tliev were settled after due consideration wen; 
 
24 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 always the guide to his actiou aud the measure of his duty. He 
 thougiit much, and examined witli earefuhiess every important 
 question that engaged his attention. 
 
 Wheu he was in error he was dangerous because of" the t'ertility 
 of his resources in argument, his zeal and firmness, his tact in de- 
 bate, and the aggressive energy of liis mind. ^Vllen he was right 
 he was almost invincible. 
 
 These qualities naturally fitted liim for the highest range of 
 achievements as an advocate and leader; but such wa.s his independ- 
 ence of all control by the thougiits of others that he sometimes 
 sacrificed the leadership of men whom lie could have controlled 
 had he made concessions that were not of vital consequence to him 
 or to them. 
 
 The people often made concessions to him to avoid controversy 
 with one whom they greatly admired and were attaciied to witli 
 affectionate regard. Tiie following of the people under his leader- 
 ship did not always result from their approval of his views, even 
 on great questions. 
 
 He was, in the American sense, a great popular orator, whose 
 powers were best adapted to great questions and important occa- 
 sions in which the rigiits and liberties of the people were concerned 
 or the honor of the country was at stake. In such discussions he 
 S(5metimes rose to astonishing lieights of sublimity of thought and 
 speech, which carried liis audience with iiim until they seemed to 
 lose control of themselves. He iiad no facuhy of imitation, and 
 his style of oratory was all his own. He iiad no model in rhetoric 
 or logic that he was willing to copy. He seemed to have no 
 tiioughts that were his merely by adoption ; they were tlic offspring 
 of his own mind. His eloquence was little more than a fi'rvid 
 statement of the facts or reasoning which had brought his mind to 
 the conclusions which he was supporting; but it was so intense as 
 to become almost irresistible. 
 
 When speaking to the people, in the period just preceding the 
 war, wheu tlie argument wa.s closed and a resort to other met*lio<ls 
 of defense had become a necessity, as tiiey viewed the situation, he 
 turned their thoughts to the duties and dangers of tiie peoj)U' 
 
ADDRESS OP MR. MORGAN, OF ALABAMA. 25 
 
 of the Soiitli and of their posterity. He reviewed with patlietio 
 ferver their fidelity to the Coiistitiitiou and tlie Union in all 
 former times of danger and trial — in the second war of Inde- 
 pendence with (rreat Britain ; in the wars with the Indians, who 
 were supported hy ]5ritish and S^janish emissaries, and inspired by 
 the savage eloquence of Tecumseh ; and in the war with Mexico; 
 and, feeling that they were threatened with servile insurrection and 
 ultimate degradation and the loss of all protection under the Con- 
 stitution, he urged them to their duty with such power that — 
 
 Each ravished bosom felt the high alarms, 
 And all their burning pulses beat to arms. 
 
 Mr. Hill was a lawyer of great ability, but his self-reliant 
 habits of reaisouing led him to seek for arguments rather than for 
 precedents to support the cause he was advocating. The special- 
 jury system of Georgia was productive of great alertness and skill 
 in forensic discussion among the lawyers of Georgia, and in these 
 he excelled. Senators will remember how much he relied on this 
 faculty even in the discussion of questions of the most intricate 
 character. He always spoke extemporaneously, and seldom made 
 any use even of notes of refereni^e to authorities. 
 
 In the strenuous controversy of high debate he was sometimes 
 severe, but never with willful injustice to those oppo.sed to him. 
 
 Tlie only soil of his fair v irtue's gloss 
 
 Was a sharp wit, match'd with too bhint a will ; 
 
 Whose edge none spurned that came within his power. 
 
 His political career was shaped l)y the events of the most diffi- 
 cult and momentous periotl in American history. The succes.s of 
 the rebellion of 1776 by the strength of the Union it established 
 miule the succe.ss of the rebellion of 18G0 impossible. But the 
 questions that were left open after the first rebellion to rankle in 
 the bosoms of the people made the second rebellion and the war 
 that followed it unavoidable. 
 
 Mr. Hill, in common with (jtlicr men of that period, under- 
 stood that the third generation of American citizens were forced 
 to settle by arms the questions that the first generation could not 
 settle in the beginning without giving up all hope of uniting the 
 
26 LIFE AND CBARACTEK OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 States in a Federal Government under the new Constitution. He, 
 like many otherr;, was coniiielled by a sense of duty to oliange his 
 attitude on questions of policy to meet the dangers as they arose 
 and drifted with the current of events. His fated duty and pur- 
 pose forced him into resistance to the inevitable, but the least de- 
 structive measure of resistance was what he always sought to 
 adopt. Under such circumstances he was tlien, and more re- 
 cently, charged with reckless inconsistency. 
 
 That was not a just criticism either of his charactei' or iiis con- 
 duct. He was so far free from that weakness which is dignified 
 with the title of pride of opinion that he did not hesitate to aban- 
 don his opinions and to disprove their soundness when subsequent 
 reflection satisfied him of the error. It was this trait that gave 
 color to the idea that lie was vacillating in his jMilitical convic- 
 tions. 
 
 If he were here and I could render to him in jicrson the justice 
 which he would most appreciate, as I render to his memory what 
 I believe to be most true, I would say of his course in the begin- 
 ning of the civil war and during the discussion of the events that 
 led to it that no man then living was more sincerely devoted to 
 the American Union than he was ; no man gave up the hope of 
 its perpetuity with more intense sorrow than he did ; no man 
 more firmly believed than he did that the Southern States had 
 just grounds for tlieir secession ; no man deplored more sincerely 
 than he did that secession and war were made inevitalile by the 
 very provisions of the Constitution that men were sworn to suj)- 
 port, and that could not in fact be supported in its |)nivisi()ns re- 
 lating to slavery except l)y the power of the sword as against the 
 will of a great majority of the American people; and wiicn the 
 crisis came no man was firmer than Mr. Hill in supporting witli 
 his vote in the <'ouventiou of Georgia the ordinance of secession, 
 against which lie had entered his protest, but to whicli lie gave his 
 assent when his brethren had resolved that it was the only remedy 
 left open to them. 
 
 This is the true history of his motives and feelings in that time 
 of severe trial, which so honorably explain his conduct. In the 
 
ADDRESS OF ME. MORGAN, OF ALABAMA. 27 
 
 light of tliese facts tlu're is a iin)ral liuroisui in his course which 
 raises his fame even to a liigiier eminence than that which is so 
 freely accorded to him for his acknowletlged abilities. His fidelity 
 to the Confederate States could not have been greater if he had 
 been the sole responsible autlior of the secession of each of the 
 States. His devotion to tiiat cause after he had espoused it, and 
 to the people after tliey \\(a"e involved in war, appeals to their 
 hearts for a tribute, which they freely render to his memory, far 
 exceeding eulog}' and praise, the tribute of gratitude enriched by 
 love. None but t)u' truest of men could have won this high dis- 
 tincti(jn from the people of the South. He has won it worthily, 
 and it will continue to bloom amid the leiives of the chaplet with 
 which they have crowned him for inmiortality. 
 
 The people of the South withdrew from the Union because they 
 believed that the Government of the United States had no longer 
 the will or the power to protect their constitutional rights. They 
 went out by the separate and independent action of each of the 
 eleven seceding States. Their union into a confederacy was itself 
 a great task upon the statesmanship of the leading men of the 
 South. Along with this task came tlie instant and inevitable 
 work of preparing tor a great war. 
 
 In all these high duties Mr. Hili^ was an active and leading 
 participant as a representative of the State of Georgia. 
 
 The condition of these eleven States was perilous in the ex- 
 treme, and required the highest order of capacity for government 
 to direct them through these dangerous straits. The individual 
 States had armies in the field engaged in conflicts of arms before 
 the Cijntederacv could be organized under a provisional govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Then immediately came the great struggle, in which all the 
 people of all races, with only a few individual exceptions, were 
 united for weal or for woe. There was nothing on which the Con- 
 federacy could rely for success except the devotion of the people to 
 the cause whicli united them. Nothing was organized, and the 
 material of war consisted only of resolute men. Without a mili- 
 tary chest, or arms, munitions, equipments, transportation, or sup- 
 
28 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 plies, the military resources of the Confederacy consisted of ten 
 millions of people, of whom mcire than a third were slaves whose 
 release from bondage depended on the success of tlie arms of tlie 
 United States. 
 
 This population could not furnish and keep in the field more 
 than a half million of men even for a short campaign. Its total 
 arms-bearing strength could not exceed a million of men, within 
 the extreme limits of militarv levies, during the whole period of a 
 four vears' war. Their arms and ordnance stores, munitions, pro- 
 visions, and transportation were to be dug from the mines and the 
 fields, and hewn from the forests, and constructed from the native 
 material. They had to raise the cotton and wool for clothing their 
 armies, and to build factories to convert them into cloth. There 
 was not a thousand thoroughly educated soldiers in these eleven 
 States. They had little money and no credit abroad. They were 
 shut in on land and sea by great armies and navies. They had no 
 fleet and no commerce. They had not the genuine sympathy of 
 any nation in the world. 
 
 Their adversaries were men of their own blootl ; powerful, war- 
 like, rich, determined ; aroused with enthusiastic zeal for tlie 
 Union and the supremacy of its laws ; supplied with every re- 
 source of warfare, and supported by the sympathy and assi.stance 
 of many other great nations, whose people recruited their armies. 
 They could put in the field as many soldiers as the confederacy 
 could possibly muster, and still have a reserve of population of 
 20,000,000 from which to draw other armies. 
 
 This brief view of the situation will sufficiently show the gen- 
 eral outline of the labors that Mr. Hill and his colleagues in the 
 Confederate congress were called to perform. They courageously 
 took up the task, which seemed too great for human endeavor. 
 
 Their debates are not published, but the tradition that has reached 
 us is that they were never excelled in ability and majestic eloquence. 
 It may be better that they have faded from human recollection. 
 
 There was little of ])ersonal rivalry in the Confederate congress. 
 The weight of responsibility resting upon all alike kept each in- 
 dividual equal upon the common plane of duty. It was the per- 
 
ADDRESS OF MH. MORGAN, OF ALABAMA. 29 
 
 forniauce of duty, and not daring enterprise or moving eloquence, 
 tiiat was the test of a man's devotion to the common cause and of 
 his ability to serve it in that congress. 
 
 According to this standard Mr. Hii>l was honorably distin- 
 guished among his colleagues, and was applauded by the people. 
 The regard of the people for him far exceeded mere admiration. 
 There was a strong bond of affection between them. All the sym- 
 pathies of his high nature were aroused by their sufferings, and 
 grew into homage for their virtues as he witnessed their fortitude 
 and patience in the terrible trials of the war. He saw that their 
 wealth was freely given to the Confederacy; that they fed and 
 clothed the army without the hope of compensation ; that the poor, 
 the widowed, and the orphaned took refuge and found comfort in 
 their cheerful benevolence; that they gave up their houses for hos- 
 pitals, and gathered from tlie fields and forests the simple remedies 
 for the wounded and sick wliich took the place of the ordinary 
 hospital supplies and medicines which were denied to them. He 
 saw that the women raised bread in the sun-beaten fields, with plow 
 and hoe, and divided it between their children at home and their 
 husbands and children in the armv. He saw the mothers sendingr 
 their sons forth to recruit the armies as soon as they were able to 
 bear arms, and oftentimes to take the places of fathers and elder 
 brothers who iiad fallen in battle. He rejoicetl in the heroic spirit 
 of the people, and tiiey felt that lie was true to them. 
 
 The end came ; and with it came the dawn of a new hope, only 
 to spread its wings of light for a moment, and tlien to fold them 
 again in darkness. 
 
 With peace came the promise of restoration to civil liberty as it 
 is proudly impersonated in the character of the American citizen. 
 That promise contained the essential part of all for which the 
 Southern people had fought for four weary and sorrow-burdene<l 
 years. They gave uj) the institution which was the provoking- 
 cause of the great conflict of arms, and felt assured that there would 
 no longer be occa.sion or excuse for a denial to them of the equal 
 rights enjoyed by other American citizens. They laid down their 
 arms and ga\-e their paroles upon these express conditions. But 
 
30 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN R. HILL. 
 
 they were grievously disappointed, and, having disarmed, they had 
 no hinger the privilege of making honurahle sacrifices to vindicate 
 their rights. They brooded in the darkness ot a liopeless doom 
 over a loss that was seemingl}' irreparable. 
 
 C>n sueii occasions men liave often come f()rvvard who seem to 
 have been fitted and prepared beforehand f()r the work. They ask 
 tiie confidence of the people, and if they have the faith to give it 
 and the courage to follow they ai'c led Ijy tlieni into a hapjjy de- 
 liverance. 
 
 Among this class of leaders in the South Mr. Hill was con- 
 spicuous. In the events which followed the surrender of 1865 his 
 courage and eloquence were displayed in their grandest power as a 
 leader of the people. He wa.s maddened with tiie thought that 
 the surrender of a people who had struggled so gallantly and suf- 
 fered so much, but were yet able to have protracted the war in- 
 definitely, did not bring to them the rights whicli were expressly 
 included in tlie capitulation. Witli anguish of soul he witnessed 
 the wrongs and humiliation inflicted on them under the policy of 
 the reconstruction of the seceding States, by which they were held 
 subject as vassals under the laws of war when they had been 
 promised restoration under the laws of peace. 
 
 When the military power was thus made to supplant the civil 
 power in Georgia, and the disarmed people were incapable of re- 
 sistance, he did not despair. He felt that there was in the Ameri- 
 can heart a forum where the ])lca for justice could still l)e heard, 
 and he boldly demanded an audience there. Through such assist- 
 ance he determined that (leorgia should be set free from military 
 despotism and foreign I'ule. He united the people of Georgia in 
 a crusade against tyrainiy. They broke their chains, and he led 
 them in a triumphant march to victory. With no other weapon 
 but the freeman's Itallot tlicy ilrove out their oppressors. 
 
 His strength, when thus called into action, was a sublime e.x- 
 
 pression of the depth of feeling and suffering of a great spirit 
 
 maddened by a sense of cruel wrong. 
 
 As when Alcides * < ' felt the eiivenom'd ro))e, and tore 
 Through pain up by the roots Thessaliau pines ; 
 And Lichas from the top of (Eta threw 
 Into the Euboic sea — 
 
ADDRESS OF MB. MORGAN, OF ALABAMA. 31 
 
 SO did tliis maddened patriot tear from the bosom of his native 
 State the deep-rooted grafts of military despotism and cast tlieni 
 out from her borders. Neither Garibaldi nor Gambetta were more 
 patriotic or more intrepid than he was, and the nations of the earth 
 have recently mourned at their funerals. This homage was given 
 them because they had lifted up the heads of despairing peoples in 
 times of national calamity, and reinspired them with hope, courage, 
 and self-reliau(^e. ^Vnd fortius cause the South mourns at the obse- 
 quies of her patriot son, and embalms his memory with her tears. 
 
 Tt is not apj)ropriate to nttei- all the praises our hearts would 
 fain bestow upon him. We prefer to leave something unsaid and 
 undone for the present time to signify a tenderness of feeling for 
 our dead who were great and good that does not now admit of 
 complete expression. 
 
 I witnessed the burial of Benjamin H. Hill in the bosom of 
 his native State. The people were there in observant masses look- 
 ing sadly on at the simple cortege that escorted his remains to the 
 cemetery. They seemed to feel that he had died much too soon to 
 y-ather the full wealth of his own fame or to confer on them the 
 full riches of his counsels. They seem to think of him as of a 
 warrior slain by chance when he had put on his armor to win his 
 greatest victories ; as an eagle stricken in its boldest flight ; as an 
 oak riven with lightning in the fullness of its beauty and strength 
 while Sf)reading its leaves to welcome the summer showers. They 
 were proud that their sorrow was honoring alike to the living and 
 the dead ; but they were grieved that the sad occasion had so soon 
 arrived. They believed, and I do, that he had not attained to the 
 fullness of his growth in intellectual powei' and that he left unfin- 
 ished many noble plans for the good of the country. 
 
 ]\Ir. Hill was not always wise, yet few were wiser than he. Tt 
 cannot be said of him that he was always right, but it can be truly 
 said that he was never wrong from willfulness, for lack of courage, 
 or from inattention to the requirements of duty. 
 
 Discarding all blind confidence in fate, and deeply sensible of 
 responsibility to God, his noble and just spirit left this brief exist- 
 ence for one that is eternal, satisfied with the past and confident of 
 the future. 
 
 o 
 
32 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 Thougli his work here was not finished, as we view snch matters, 
 he was not rehictant to lay down the great eliarge intrusted to hiui 
 by a ibnd constitueney ; for he believed that the Master had called 
 him to other duties which, as compared with his duties in the Sen- 
 ate, would confer on him "a flir more exceeding and eternal weight 
 of glory," and so assured, he departed hence with rejoicing. 
 
 Address of Mr. Sherman, of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. President: We are often called upon in the midst of our 
 public duties to commemorate the death of an associate who has 
 shared with us in the labor and responsibility of official trust. But 
 it rarely happens that the fatal shaft falls upon a Senator of such 
 physical strength and mental vigor as Senator Hill. He had 
 scarcely yet attained the full measure of national reputation to wiiich 
 his admitted abilities would have raised him. The insidious dis- 
 ease which sapped his life not only filled his home, his family, and 
 his State with pain and sorrow, but caused a sigh of sadness and 
 respectful sympatliy in every household where his patient suffering 
 and premature death were known. 
 
 I am not able to s]icak of Senator Hill with the fullness of 
 information that his colleagues and personal associates have done. 
 They tell us how lie won and held in the highest degree the respect 
 and esteem of his associates, that he has been honored with the con- 
 fidence of the pe()i)le of his native State, and by their suffrages for 
 years has filled with credit many positions of public trust. We 
 knew him as he appeared among us, a ready debater, an ardent but 
 courteous antagonist, strong, earnest, and convincing. 
 
 He came into tiic House of Representatives with a high reputa- 
 tion, and both there and in the Senate maintained and advanced it 
 so that when the premonition of death came upon him he stood 
 as high in the respect and confidence of his associates as any mem- 
 ber of this body. 
 
 He was a native of Georgia, educated in one of her universities, 
 and learned in the practice of law in her courts. He was distinctly 
 
ADDRESS OF MIL SHERilAS. OF OHIO. S3 
 
 a type uf the Southern mind in it.'^ best relations to the affairs of 
 life. 
 
 Though his early life was spent under the influences of the insti- 
 tutions of his native State, and though its industries were then con- 
 fined mainly to the pursuits of agriculture, yet iu his early manhood 
 he appreciated the imj^ortant position which Georgia holds, as con- 
 taining within her bounds the chief elements for manufacturing 
 industries as well as a fruitful soil for agricultural products. 
 
 He was, as I understood him, in early life attached to the Whig 
 party, and mainly on account of the well-known position of that 
 party in tavor of the protective policy. He sympathized heartily 
 with the present prospects that in Georgia there will be a rapid de- 
 velopxuent of her natural mineral resources, and that the cotton 
 grown on her genial soil and that of the "Sunny South" will be 
 made ready for her Southern looms and spindles. 
 
 He had no regrets for the past in the brightening prospects of the 
 future, but looked to his State, often called the " Empire State of 
 the South," as likely to be improvt^l and advanced by the results 
 of the war to a higher plane of wealth, strength, and population. 
 
 His hope was that his State would rise with fresh vigor from the 
 misfortune and devastation of war by the building of railroads, the 
 opening of mines of coal and iron, and by the tide of immigration 
 and labor from other States as well as from foreign lands. 
 
 Senator Hill was consistently a Union man before the war. He 
 resisted the secession of his State until after the ordinance of seces- 
 sion was passed. While his views of the construction of the Con- 
 stitution in later years diftered widely from my own, yet I never 
 doubted the sincerity of his opinions. To the questions that grew 
 out of the war I do not feel at liberty even to allude, because on 
 these questions we were wi<lcly apart in opinion. 
 
 Whatever his views on any subject, he always put them forth 
 with the utmost \igor and clearness of expression. Endowed by 
 nature with an ardent temperament, and cultivated by education in 
 the use of all the gifts of speech, he defended his opinions with 
 ciinsunimate ability. ^^'lK■ther in attack or in defense, he was an 
 adversary to coiumand respect in any forni of debate. He repre- 
 3 H 
 
34 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN E. HILL. 
 
 sented in a marked degree that first quality of an orator — earnest- 
 ness. His training in the practice of the law made him familiar, 
 to a wide extent, with precedents and decisions, upon whicli he drew 
 copiously in his arguments upon questions involving Constitutional 
 law and legislative and judicial power. His speeches were more 
 remarkable for their clear reason than for their rhetorical felicity, 
 and it may he said that the bent of his mind was in the direction 
 of dialectics rather than of literary effort. 
 
 As a man of fine natural gifts and high accomplishments, his 
 loss will be felt not only in his own State and neighl^orhood, but 
 in the councils of the nation ; and after more than half a century 
 of a well-spent life his countrymen will recognize, even in its 
 close, the elements of a well-rounded career. 
 
 Address of Mr. VOORHEES, of Indiana. 
 
 Mr. President: We halt to-day for a few moments in the great 
 journey to say the la.st farewell words over a new-made grave. A 
 comrade in the battle of life has fallen in this high forum. The 
 skeleton foot of death enters witli familiar step the loftiest a^^ well 
 as the humblest stations of human life, and again it has invaded 
 the floor of the Senate. But yesterday a commanding presence 
 moved in our midst which we shall see no more ; a voice of pow- 
 erful eloquence was heard which is now hushed forever ; a tower- 
 ing intellect shed its light on human affairs whicli now has joined 
 other councils than those of earth. A great and living force has 
 gone out from this body and from every scene of mortal concern. 
 
 Others have more fully spoken of Senator HiLr.'s life and pub- 
 lic career than will be expected from me, but of his intellectual 
 strength, his will, and his courage I have deep and lasting im- 
 pressions. I first met him during the reconstruction of the 
 Southern States which followed tlie war. As a member of an in- 
 vestigating committee apjiointed by Congress I visited Atlanta, 
 and there met Mr. Hili> for the first time. His appearance and 
 bearing strongly attracted my attention. The still intensity of his 
 
JDDSESS OF MR. roOEBEES, OF IKDUyj 35 
 
 pale, strong face, his firm, determined features, and the clear light 
 of his steady, inquiring, and, as it seemed to me then, somewhat 
 distrustful blue eyes, combined to make on my mind the vivid and 
 striking portrait of a remarkable man. I recall vividly now the 
 self-poise, the reserve, the circumspection with which he spoke of 
 public questions, and sought to shelter from hurtful legislation all 
 the interests of his people. He was not then taking part in na- 
 tional politics, and I doubt if such was his intention, but when he 
 was some time afterward elected to the House of Representatives 
 my opinion of his abilities and force was only confirmed when he 
 immediately took a conspicuous leadership in that body. 
 
 Of the merits of the heated controversies in which he engaged 
 of course I do not speak in this presence, but that he was the peer 
 of the ablest whom he met no one will deny. His fame was at 
 once national, and liis State only waited for the fii-st opportunity 
 to bestow upon him its highest honor. After Mr. Hill became a 
 member of this body his daily movements and every word he ut- 
 tered were marked and scrutinized as those of a leatling and im- 
 portant actor in public affairs. He had been a representative man 
 under an order of things and an attempted government which had 
 crumbled to the dust, and he could not be less than a representa- 
 tive character here. To me it was always a curious and most in- 
 teresting .study to watch the workings of his brilliant and fertile 
 mind while he grasped the duties and the ideas of tiie living pres- 
 ent, and at the same time with reverent care and devotion pro- 
 tected the motives and the memory of a cause into which he had 
 poured the whole ardor of his earlier manhood. His mind was 
 essentially daring and progressive, and he did not seek to cling to 
 principles and methods which had been tried and failed ; he 
 simply guarded well tlie honor of tliat vast cemetery in whicli the 
 dead past lies bui'ied. 
 
 Standing, as 1 once heard him say, in the ashes of desolation, 
 he still looked forward with ;ui unfaltering trust to the dawn of a 
 new day of glory for his section, anil of union and progress for 
 the entire country. He was a I'eady mounted knight, not hw^king 
 back to past fields of encounter, but prompt to enter the lists when- 
 
36 LIFE AND CHJUJCTJSIt OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 ever or -wlierever opened. He believed with Edmund Burke tliat 
 statesman^liip wa.s the science of circumstances, and he addressed 
 himself with wisdom and courage to the situation in whicli lie 
 found himself placed. 1"his sometimes caused him to be accused 
 i)i inconsistency by those who forget that the circumstances wlii<'li 
 govern the conduct of tlie statesman arc themselves inconsistent 
 from day to day. The law of the world is mutation. 
 
 History is a never-ending panorama, in which the pictures arc 
 never the same. The same grand purposes and tact of progression 
 are there, but the methods of public policy, the ways and means 
 whereby governments are created and sustained, the mea.sures which 
 from time to time best promote, foster, and encourage the welfare 
 of the people, are as various as the ditt'erent conditions of mankind 
 which havecalled them forth. The principles which have governed 
 one generation may ha\'e to be discarded for the safety and pros- 
 perity of the next. The wisdom of to-day may be the folly of to- 
 morrow in the administrative measures of peace as well a.s in the 
 tactics and strategy of war. 
 
 Senator Hii.l always appeared as much ali\c to this great fiict 
 as any man I ever met in public life. He was alway.s found on the 
 skirmi.sh line of advanced and advancing ideas, and in the constant 
 encounters which nece.ssarily tak(^ place on that line in the field of 
 thought, the lightning as it leaps from the sky is hardly more bril- 
 liant or rapid than were the operations of his mind. Indeed, so 
 prolific was his genius when heated by the combat of discussion 
 that it seemed at times to partake of the eccentricity of the light- 
 ning as well as of its brilliancy and power. But lie was never al- 
 lured in his most daring flights so far that he could not upon the 
 instant return to meet his adversary at the preci.se point in issue. 
 It was this quality, in great measure, and the intensity with whicli 
 he could identifv himself with the actual matter in hand, regardless 
 of what the past had demanded of him, which made him the Ibr- 
 midable antagonist and the resistless orator at the bar, on the hus- 
 tings, and in the halls of legislation. 
 
 Sir, a character such as I speak of has ne\'er in any age failed to 
 encounter determined opposition and deep-seated hostility. Th(! 
 
ADDRESS OF .1//.'. VOORHEES, OF IKDljy.l. 37 
 
 overthrown autagonist, the routed adversary, ue\'er forget and are 
 often slow to forgive. The impetuous assault in debate, the fiei-ce 
 invective, tlie merciless sarcasm, leave wounds whidi seldom alto- 
 gether heal. This was doubtless true of tiie public career of the 
 bold, aggressive Senator wiiose loss we deplore; and yet to those 
 who knew him well in private life how gentle, considerate, and 
 kind were his words and liis ways I A simple circumstance of an 
 accidental cliaracter brought about relations between us which re- 
 vealed him to me in a light I did not expect, aithougli I had Ijccn 
 acquainted with him for years. 
 
 I saw the self-absorbed, distant manner melt away into the gen- 
 tlest sunshine. I realized tiiat when he gave his confidence at all 
 lie gave it entire ; tiiat when he trustetl he did so without res- 
 ervation, and witii an unlimited faith. While perhaps " he was 
 lofty and sour to those who loved him not," yet he had, in a boun- 
 tiful degree, those elements of nature toward friends which make 
 man "sweet as summer" to his fellow-man. As the world saw iiim 
 during his active career he was a warrior with his armor on, his 
 lance in rest and his visor down ; l)ut aAvay from the scenes of con- 
 flict and in the midst of those who came close to him he was the 
 unassuming, generous, confiding friend. At such times he always 
 spoke with singular gentleness and charity of those from whom he 
 diifered and witli whom his debates had been most heated and de- 
 termined ; nor do I think I ever heard liim speak with a show of 
 personal resentment of such even as had dealt most liarsiily and un- 
 justly with his name and fame. 
 
 Sir, tlie combination of rare and iiigh qualities of mind and heart 
 possessed by Senator HiLi> not only account for the mourning of 
 (jfeorgia over his loss, but also for the fiict that his death is re- 
 garded in every section as a national calamity. His power for 
 great public usefulness \vas recognized in every quarter of our vast, 
 expanded country. He had a glorious cause at heart, the construc- 
 tion and development of a grand, harmonious future for the whole 
 country, adjusting his own and the kindred States and people of the 
 South to the existing conditions of the present day, and insuring 
 them tlicir full proportion of the honor and the wealth of the na- 
 
38 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 tion. What nobler purpose ever animated the luinian breast ? But 
 in the full meridian splendor of his mental vigor and his ripe ex- 
 perience the unfiuished task fell from his hands. That summons 
 to which every ear shall hearken and all mortality obey readied 
 him at the zenith of his powers, and witli his plans of future work 
 all spread out before him. 
 
 When the light of the sun fades away at nightfall we behold the 
 harmonious fulfillment of nature's law ; but when darkness comes at 
 noonday we are struck with awe at tlie mysteries of the universe. 
 When eternity beckons to one whose labors are ended here, and 
 who walks wearily under the burden of years, we see him sink dow n 
 to his rest with resignation to the decrees as they are written ; but 
 when death claims the great and strong, in all their pride of power 
 and place, we break forth in grief, and question the ways of Heaven 
 and earth, which are pa.st finding out. 
 
 The hand of the reaper 
 
 Takes the ears that are hoary ; 
 But the voice of the weeper 
 
 Wails manhood iu glory. 
 
 How capricious and various are the ways of death ! On tiie first 
 day of the new year there had gathered at the White House a vast 
 a.s.semblage to pay honor to the President of the Republic. Talent, 
 beauty, official distinction, all were there. Heroes of the Army and 
 the Navy, in tlie brilliant decorations of their rank, made their offi- 
 cial obeisance to tiicir Commander-in-Chief; the embassadors of 
 distant courts, blazing iu scarlet and gold, paid friendly congratu- 
 lations to the Chief Magistrate of the foremost commonwealth on 
 the globe ; thoughtful legislators and ermincd judges, men of let- 
 ters, and professors of scieni'e stood in the same presence ; female 
 loveliness lent its enchautment to the scene ; soft music charmed all 
 the air; the I'ich odor of flowers came with every breath, and tlie 
 lofty old halls and promenades were vocal with exclamations of 
 liappy enjoyment. Immediately at my side, in the midst of this 
 radiant throng, stood one who was full of years and of honors. 
 But the spirit of the glass and scythe was hovering even there, and 
 at the touch of its icy hand I saw the venerable man of four-score 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. rOORHEliS, OF INDIANA. 39 
 
 >ink down like au infant to gentle sleep. Without moan or sigh 
 or pain he passed in an instant from the light, the music, and the 
 ])erfumes of earth to the woi'ld of eternal beauty beyond the sun. 
 
 Fortunate man; fortunate in life, and still more fortunate in 
 death ! Xot a moment in the dark valley or the shadow between 
 the two worlds, he closal his aged eyes upon tlie joys of time to open 
 them upon the brighter \-isions of eternity. But ho'w shall the 
 dreadful contrast which flashes on every mind be spoken ? To tlie 
 dead Senator whom we mouru to-day death came in its most appall- 
 ing form, wearing its most cruel and ghastly mien. No circumstance 
 of torture or of horror was omitted from the awful ordeal through 
 which he slowdy passed. He sought the aid of science, for life was 
 sweet to him ; but after ho turned his fiice homeward, to abide the 
 will of God, as he said, among his own people, the pages of human 
 history in all their wide range present no more striking instance 
 than he did of unquailing, lofty heroism and of sublime submission 
 to the decrees of Providence. 
 
 The stoic philosopher of antiquity would have taken refuge iu 
 self-murder from the frightful aspect worn by the King of Terrors 
 on which the dving American statesman looked from liourto hour, 
 from day to day, and from month to month with unbroken com- 
 posure. A little more than a year ago the world watched around 
 the death-bed of the sIomIv dying President of the United States, 
 and wondered at his calmness and courage ; but to hini there was 
 administered daily hope. Not a whisper of earthly hope sustained 
 Senator Hill as he looked long and steadily at his inevitable doom. 
 And yet no murmur, wail, or lament ever escaped his lips; he ut- 
 tered no word of grief or disappointment that the end of his pil- 
 grimage was so near ; no agony of suffering was ever so terrible as 
 to extort a single cry of jiain; he never appeared so great, so calm 
 and strong, as face to face with the mighty monarch before whom all 
 must bow. And why was this ? Able, self-reliant, and intrepid 
 as he ^\■as, could he, unaided and alone, sustain with unclouded se- 
 renity of mind such a conflict with approaching and painful disso- 
 lution ?. Was there no one with him to soothe and to comfort as he 
 passed through the furnace seven times heated ? 
 
40 LIFE AND CHARACTEH OF BENJAMIN If. HILL. 
 
 Sir, we leaini that Mr. HiLi/s father was a minister of the Christ- 
 ian religion, and that he edncated his son in the principles and the 
 practices of liis own faith. It is a tact, also, that when the son 
 grew to manhood, and at every pevio<1 of his hrilliaut and at times 
 stormv career, this faith abided with him. The good seed .sown 
 in tiie morning may have seemed .scorched l>y the sun, or ciiok(Hl 
 bv the thorns and cares of the day, but it never lost root in his 
 mind ; and in his hour of trial it brought forth fruit more than a 
 hundred-fold. It enabled him to realize a home of peace and joy 
 beyond the reach of disease or death ; it enabled him to smile 
 amidst his suflferings as martyrs have smiled in fianies at the stake. 
 Though of approaching death it might be said, 
 
 Black as night, 
 Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, 
 He shook a dreadful dart, 
 
 vet the pale and wasted orator could for himself truthfully exclaim, 
 " De^ith is swallowed up in victory." His heart could utter, if his 
 tongue could not, that loftiest psean of human triumph ever 
 chanted on the shores of time : 
 
 O Death ! where is thy sting f 
 O Grave ! where is thy victory ? 
 
 Sir, it is a deep and never-ending plea.sure to know that in the 
 midst of physical wreck, decay, and pain thei'e came to our lost 
 comrade in full abundance, and in compensation for all he endured, 
 those rich and precious consolations which this world can neither 
 give nor take away. 
 
 He sleeps well in the soil of his native State. His memory will 
 I'emain fresh and green in the hearts of his people. Di.stant and 
 rising generations will point out his name in the books which re- 
 cord these times as they would point out one of the brightest stars 
 in the sky. And this is all of earth that remains for him. No 
 more will this great pulsating world, with its high, stern battle- 
 cries of conflict, arouse his eager spirit to action. The world 
 moves on without him, as the ocean rolls in unbroken and heed- 
 less majesty over the wreck which has gone down in her bosom. 
 Great lives have perished at every stej) in the eternity of time, but 
 
ADDRESS OF MIL EDMUNDS, OF VERMONT. 41 
 
 tlie giant march of eveut.s lia.s uot faltered nor the progre,«.s of tlie 
 world been defeated. 
 
 The duties of the dead Senator are all finished. Even this 
 solemn occa.sion, with his name on every lip, is nothing to him. 
 His silent dust is alike indiiferent to praise or blame, and his im- 
 mortal presence has passed far beyond the call of human voices. 
 But to us, the living, who stand where he so lately stood, this 
 hour is freighted with interest and admonition. We are walking 
 with unerring steps to the grave, and each setting sun finds us 
 nearer to the realms of rest. The fleetness of time, our brief and 
 feeble grasp upon the affiiirs of earth, the certainty of death, anil 
 tlie magnitude of eternity all crowd upon the mind at such a mo- 
 ment iis this. They warn us to be in readiness, for no one kno\\s 
 in the great lottery of life and death on whose cold, dead, pathetic 
 face we may next look in this narrow circle. They call upon us 
 to think and speak and live in charity with each other, for the 
 last lH>urs that must come to all will be sweetened by recollections 
 of such forbearance and grace in our own lives as we invoke for 
 ourselves from that merciful Father into whose presence we hasten. 
 
 Address of Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont. 
 
 Mr. President : (Jthei's more nearly connected with the late 
 Senator by ties of location, political sympathy, and personal in- 
 timacy have spoken of him as only those so situated can well do. 
 
 I will speak of him chiefly as he appeared to me in his public 
 (iareer. He was, I think, of the very highest order of intellectual 
 strength, both in his perceptive and reflective faculties. He was 
 able to perceive with clearness the relations of public questions, 
 and the remote, but not less certain, efiects of occurring events, 
 when to many others the horizon was entirely clouded and in- 
 definite, or clothed with a distorted and illusory promise. A 
 Whig and American down to the time of the attempted se- 
 cession of the Southern States in 1861, he foresaw something 
 of the fiiture and opposed with earnestness and power in the 
 
42 LIFE AND CHARAcrElt OF BEX.JAMIX H. HILL. 
 
 fonventions of his native State the movement for secession. But 
 when it was resolved upon and undertaken, he gave liimself up 
 to what he considered liis duty to his State, and was tlieuf^cforth 
 among the foremost in sustaining tlie Southern cause. 
 
 The notion of tidelitv to one's own State, whether lier course he 
 thougiit wise aud right or not, is almost a natural instinct ; and 
 whether it be defensible on broad grounds or not, who does not 
 sympathize with it? Even in this body, whose members arc 
 Senators of the TTiiited States, and are not, in a constitutional 
 sense, any more representatives of the particular States that elected 
 them than of all the otiier States and the people, it is extremely 
 difficult to free ourselves from tlie feeling that we are the rejjre- 
 sentatives of particular States merely, and that we are bound to 
 defend and promote i\w interests of their inhabitants without re- 
 sponsibility for the effect of what we do upon the people of other 
 States. Is it not clear that the fundamental unity of all the 
 States, as well as the security of the rights of each, will be muc^h 
 more secure, and the National (lovcrument much better admin- 
 istered, if we rememljer that our obligations and our solicitudes 
 should be bounded by no arrangements of political geography ? 
 So thinking, I look with large interest and sympathy upon the 
 scenes and events in M-hich flie late Senator from Georgia bore so 
 conspicuous a part, and upon the affection and confidence that the 
 great mass of the i)eopl(> of that State felt toward him. And, dif- 
 fering widely from him in respect of very many of his acts and 
 opinions, I felt deeply for him, for his family, and for his people 
 in the calamity that came upon him. And how much more ten- 
 der our sympathy ant! admiration gre\\' when we sa'w him bearing 
 the greatest of human suffering with the calmness of manly forti- 
 tude and the su)>reme happiness of (Jhristiau faith, and when we 
 saw that all the evils of this weary life were powerless to affect 
 his soul, that rose " over pain to victory." 
 
 Such events as we now commemorate, interesting and solemn as 
 they are and must be to each one of us, are the most common aud 
 the most certain of all. The life of man, did it end with this earthly 
 career, would be the most miserable of phantasms ; but to those who 
 
ADDRESS OF MB. JONES, OF FLOBIDJ. 43 
 
 see \vitli tlie eye of f'aitli beyond the naiTow border ol' our mortal 
 life "the yoke is easy aud the burden light." On this great stage 
 t>f government the actors appear and aet their parts and disappear 
 to come again no more, but the grand drama goes on without inter- 
 rupti(tn. When the greatest and apparently the most important 
 administrators of government suddenly depart there always comes 
 forward fi-om the body of an intelligent people some one to fill the 
 vacant place and who is equal to the emergency of the time, ^\'^hile, 
 then, we are touched with the suddenness of these separations, let 
 us take comfort in the knowledge that our country's institutions 
 tiourisli in larger and larger security, and that all our people feel 
 more and more the depth and strength of mutual interest, sympathy, 
 and good will. 
 
 Address of Mr. Jones, of Florida. 
 
 Mr. President: It is not my intention to weary the Senate at 
 this hour by rehearsing the story of Mr. Hill's fame. Every- 
 thing interesting in his public life has been graphically set forth by 
 his able colleague and the Senators who followed him, so that there 
 is nothing left for me to do except to put on record my humble testi- 
 mony of the value of a man like Mr. Hill to this country, and my 
 sense of the loss which this Senate and the nation have sustained in 
 our deceased brother's sad and untimely death. In surveying the 
 great field of life and noting the progress which has been made in 
 every science aud almost every department of knowledge, it would 
 seem from the little advance or change that has taken place in the 
 aifairs of government that \\e have reached a point tif perfection in 
 the art of ruling states and peoples; that it is beyond the power of 
 jinman genius to do more than maintain the spirit and integrity of 
 our existing establishments. 
 
 The best labors of the great minds of this country have been de- 
 voted to the work of settling in the public mind the great principles 
 of our admirable systems of government, so that at all times the 
 great body of the people could comprehend the line of separation 
 which divides authority from popular rights, and thus secure a loyal 
 support of government on the one hand aud a steady aud intelligent 
 
44 LIVE -lyt) Cn.lUACTER OF BKSJAillX H. HILL. 
 
 devotion to liberty ou tlie other. In tlio.se unliallowed despotisms 
 of the earth where mau is crushed and oppressed by excessive public 
 power, it is the mystery which surrounds the aegis and exercise of 
 governmental authority that sustains the unfortunate relations of 
 tyrant and slave. There nothing is defined, limite<l, or com]ire- 
 hensible, but all is dark, complicated, and forbidding. The popular 
 mind, long enslaved by superstitious devotion to slavish names and 
 maxims, never sees anything of the light of truth, and power and 
 authority united witli ignorance and submi.ssion keep millions in 
 bondage and chains. 
 
 You may ask, what has all this to do with the character or 
 merits of the deceased? 1 answer that in makiug up my estimate 
 of the loss of our distinguished brother I cannot overlook the 
 quality which, above all others, made him both eminent and useful. 
 If, as I said awhile <igo, we have made no progress in government 
 of late, and have added nothing to the discovery of the lathers for 
 the security oi- lia])pine.ss of the people, it is of the highest impor- 
 tance that the work which has been accomplished shall be maintained. 
 The gifted man whom we mourn to-<lay was especially fitted for the 
 great duty of keeping before the people the beacon-light of political 
 truth to teach them their obligations to themselves and their Gov- 
 ernment; to imj)rcss upon their minds true conceptions of political 
 liberty, allegiance, and idyalty to the demands of just authority, and 
 the preservation of every ])(pwer and authority which belong to the 
 people and the States. His capacity for this great duty made him 
 a leader of public opinion. In little matters he was not as great a-; 
 little men. But where the maguitude of the question rose to the 
 level of his great ability his power of argument was felt here and 
 in the country. 
 
 The ordinary routine worker had then to stand a.side, and every 
 one admired the workings of his original, incisive mind as it put 
 forth its powerful arguments in terse and pointed speecli. This, 
 after all, is tiie highest position a public man can occupy in a 
 country like this. Men of detail and method and labor can be 
 found anywhere and at all times, but even at a time when every- 
 thing is in a state of improvement these grand qualities of mind 
 which immortalized Fox, Pitt, Canning, Grattan, Web.ster, Clay, 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. JONES, OF FLORIDA. 45 
 
 and Calhuuii are as rare and far mure impurtant than they ever 
 were. It was Mr. Hill's great ability as an argumentative speaker 
 and writer which gave him liis fame. 
 
 He was often railed agreat orator, hut he was more than an (jrator 
 in the popular sense. He always addressed himself to the minds 
 of his hearers. I never kne«- a speaker of the same reputation 
 who drew less upon his imagination than Senator Hill. In his 
 over-anxiety to fasten conviction on the mind he would often lai)or 
 for the accuracy and prv'cisiou of the mathematician. M'hile his 
 vocabulary was always strong and simple, in my judgment it often 
 fell short of the vigor and the depth of his thoughts. Like all truly 
 great men, he attached more consequence to his ideas than to his 
 language. He was in no sense a wordy but always a thoughtful 
 speaker. His views of the Constitution were broad and liberal. 
 In his expositions of our great organic law he did not run into the 
 extreme maxims of unlimited power on the one hand nor seek to 
 abridge by too narrow bounds the authority of the Union on the 
 other. While he always admitted that the Constitution of the 
 Union was created by the people of the United States, he ever con- 
 tended that this was accomplished through separate State agencies — 
 the people of each State acting tor themselves in the matter of rati- 
 fication, independent of the people of every other State. 
 
 But this view did not affect in the least his opinion of the su- 
 j>remacy of the Federal Constitution. He always contended that 
 the powers granted by the people of the several States, acting a.s 
 organized political factious, to the General Government were as ir- 
 revocable and as binding upon the people and the States as though 
 they emanated from the people of the I'nion without regard to 
 State organizations. The great argument which he di-cw from the 
 mode of ratification was that the States and the (Tovernment of the 
 Union were parts of one system ; that there could be no question of di- 
 vided allegiance between them ; that the Union could not exist with- 
 out the States, although the States did exist before the Union. He 
 always advocated a free and liberal exercise of the powers grante<l 
 this Government, but his nature wa.s hostile to everything that had 
 the appearance of usurpation. He was one of the few men in 
 public life wiio combined high abilities ;is a political leader with 
 
46 LIFE AND CRARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 pre-eminent legal talents. Lord Chatham at one time deprecated 
 the presence of the mere lawyer in Parliament, and lie said that 
 yon might shake the constitntiou of the land to its center and the 
 lawyer wonld sit tranqnil in his cabinet, but just touch a cobweb in 
 the corner of Westiuinster Hall and the exasperated spider would 
 crawl out in its defense. 
 
 But this was not the case with Senator Hill. He did not sacri- 
 fice the Constitution to the profession. He brought to the one all 
 the snpjiort of an enlightened statesman and patriot full of devotion 
 for the whole country and its institutions, and the other he adornefl 
 with legal learning and professional abilities that will long be re- 
 membered by the bar. Like all men of strong convictions and 
 great prominence, lie wa.-; supported by devoted friends, and was 
 not without some enemies. Although he was fondly attached to his 
 high position where his talents had full play, and tenderly bound 
 Iw the ties of affection to his devoted family, the world does not 
 furnish an example more sublime than that which he has left us in 
 all the qualities of moral and physical courage, true Christian and 
 manly resignation, patient and uncomplaining submission to the 
 will of God during the long, tedious months that he awaitetl in 
 agony and suffering the period of his mortal dissolution. All the 
 glory of the Senate and tlie fame of the hustings fade into insignifi- 
 cance before the grand spectacle presented by this Christian man 
 when the time arrived which tested the weakness of human nature. 
 Whether bleetling under the operations of the surgeon's knife or 
 silently feeling the gradual but sure inroads of the monster that 
 was preying upon him, he never murmured or complained, but 
 accepted the terrible situation as evidence only of Divine pleasure 
 and with the firm conviction that his sufferings would be rewarded 
 by a happier life beyond the grave. 
 
 Who can deny the value and efficiency of strong Christian faith 
 with such an example of its power and infiueuce before him '.' 
 With all the glory ant! renown of the world fading away before 
 the shadow of eternity, tliis strong man, accustomed to all the proc- 
 esses of reason, under tiie inspiration of Christian hope was able 
 to leave an example of true heroism more valuable and sublime 
 than any left by the unbelieving philosophers of antiquity. 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. BARROW, OF GEOKdJA. 47 
 
 Address of Mr. ^xnnO'W , of Georgia. 
 
 Mr. President : It is perhaps true that I stand alone here ujxjn 
 tlic point from which I consider the character of the ilhistrious 
 man in memory of whom tlie Senate meets to-day. All others 
 who surround me at this moment have recorded impressions re- 
 ceived and stamped upon their own mature and well-settled indi- 
 vidualities. They have studied him and measured him from the 
 first iu the light which a long experience of their own in public 
 affairs cast upon him, and the figure they contemplate is shaded 
 perhaps by some clouds which have never darkened the picture 
 upon which I am looking. 
 
 In the buoyant, hero-worshiping, enthusiastic heyday of my early 
 college days I first saw him and heard him. Under the ancient 
 and historic locusts that stand like sentinels around the court-house 
 at Lexington, in the old county of Oglethorpe, in Georgia, in the 
 la.st days of the summer of 1857, there first burst upon my youth- 
 ful eye tlie exhibition of his wonderful oratory. Engaged in a 
 heated political campaign as a candidate for governor of Georgia, his 
 op2)onent being my present colleague in the Senate, conscious tiiat 
 there was before him " a foeman worthy of his steel," and that in 
 that old Whig county, thousands of whose best people were con- 
 gregated to hear tlie debate, he had an army of friends whom he 
 must uphold, encourage, and keep together, he put forth all his 
 powers. As lie towered and soared in his grand swelling tril)utes 
 to the historic renown of the old ^Vhig part)-, and, roused to his 
 highest pitch, appealed to the immense audience -before him in tlie 
 name of its past, its hei'oes, and its mission, I felt, young Democrat 
 that I was, that I was a witness to an almost apostolic revelation 
 of eloquence ; and then when he turned upon his opponent and 
 began to hurl his terrible invectives, scathing, pitiless, unsparing, 
 his every word glittering like steel, his every accent resonant and 
 ringing with the very inspiration of passionate indignation, his 
 
48 J'IFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 blazing figure was in my eyes the impersonation of every element 
 of vengeance and destruction, the very Apollyon of politics. It 
 is doubtful if any speech of his life contained iis much of that 
 power which operates particularly upon the piissions of men as tliis 
 unwritten, uupreserved phenomenal effort. 
 
 Almost undimmed by time, with the same bright hues and radi- 
 ant lights that greeted and delighted my boyish seuse.s, this vision 
 of eloquence remains. Long-after association, as much intimacy as 
 disparity in age would allow, frequent opportunity to hear him 
 again in the courts, before the people, and elsewhere, have all 
 passed over tho.se first impressions leaving them almost unchanged. 
 
 Although born ujjon the soil of Georgia, I'eared in the midst of 
 of her home influences, surrounded all the time during which his 
 character was being formed by all the agencies and forces peculiar 
 to her people, taught in her schools, graduated from her university, 
 Mr. Hill was still in sonie respects not a typical (ieorgian. There 
 wa.s something in his nature, an impulse, an insubordination, that 
 made iiim sometimes, when he thought he scented injustice or op- 
 pression, bi'eak over all l)ounds of seeming prudence and caution 
 and rush into the first arena that presented itself to cast down his 
 glove. His nature was not discreet. At such times the circum- 
 spect and deliberate moderation and wisdom that are characteristic 
 of the Georgians fretted and chafed him. He would then rebel 
 against the slow, fettering caution of his people and would lash out 
 in his fiery way against what to him seemed apatliy and jnisillan- 
 imity. 
 
 It is not strange, then, tiiat tliey sometimes misjudged iiim wiien 
 in the midst of some rebellious outbreak against wiiat to hisimjtct- 
 uous nature seemed the snail-like march of liis people to tlie tlireat- 
 ened point, he rushed on in advance. Men of this mold in all ages 
 have been leaders, and tlie masses of mankind Jiave everywhere 
 been saved, when saved at all, by those whom they did not com- 
 prelieud and whom they at some time would greet with the ever- 
 recurring verdict of the rabble, " I^et him be crucified." This re- 
 pressive power of the million upon their few great men who, rari 
 nantes in gurffite i^asto, outlive the wa\c and see the dangers that 
 
JDDKESS OF MR. li. I II ROW, OF GKOUOIA. 49 
 
 gather in the future wliicli arc invisible to the snljinerged eves of tlic 
 rest of us, has sometimes eost them tlieir lil>erties. Its influence, 
 deadening, pai-alyziiig, and disheartening, is more jJowiM-fid tlian 
 (>ver in this age. It was exerted ujxiii him of whoTii I speak more 
 than once, hut he th'fied it. Alone, seeking no allv, looking with 
 disdain upon the clamorous nadtitude, taking no coinisel, trusting 
 to his impulse and ol)eying it, he would burst out upon his meteoric 
 course athwart the political heavens. Blazing and flashing witii 
 the brilliant and almost blinding scintillations of his vivid intelli- 
 gence, terrifying hi.s friends as to the conserpiences, overwdielming 
 his thunder-stricken enemies, coming into collision with the lifelong 
 prejudices and cherisiied opinions of his own people, he would go 
 sweeping on in his gran<l career. And yet the Georgians alwavs 
 forgave him in the end and admii'cd and iionored Inm. 
 
 Whatever of jxiwer and attract! vene>s Mr. Hii.l, may have pos- 
 se?.sed as a political orator and debater, it was before a jury that iiis 
 peculiar talents in one direction at least found their fullest play. If 
 in the trial of a case in which ids ti-elings becann^ eidisted a coi'rupt 
 and lying witness crossed his j)ath, or the opposite party persistwl 
 in an attempt to palm off fraud and injustice upon the court to the 
 injury of his client, then it was that the terrible lashes of his fiercest 
 invective went laid upon their backs. Xo "dint of pity," no Hunt 
 to wratli, no clieek or curb ever came near him then, and men are 
 living now who shiver at the mention of his name, as the Saracen 
 did at Richard's, iu mindfulness of some such merciless ea.stigation. 
 His greatest power was of this sort. There was but little pathos 
 in iiim. His verdicts, and he won many, were those of the "cloud 
 compelling Jove" rather than the "sweet influences of Pleiades." 
 
 Many great orators have had epochs in their lives when their 
 style as such suffered a transformation. This was notably true of 
 Choate, of J.,incoln, antl ot Gambetta. It became less impassioned 
 and more philosophical ; but with Mr. Hill there wius a marked 
 and powerful exercise in his latest efforts of precisely the same great 
 characteristics that distinguished his earliest ; and even the tradi- 
 tions of his college days, that still lovingly cling around the old 
 ivied walls of his alma mater at Athens, dim and shadowy though 
 4 H 
 
50 /-//'A' ^^"J' CHARACTER Of' UES.IAMIK B. UlLh. 
 
 tlicv 1)1', liaiuk'd down from cljiss tn class, still outline the same 
 striking iiulixiduality tliat afterwanl riveted the attention ot'a con- 
 tinent. 
 
 But witli all his triiim|)hs — 
 
 Nothing ill hin life 
 Became him like the leaving it; he lUed 
 As one that had been studied in his death, 
 To throw away the doaiest thing he ow'd. 
 As 'twere a careless triHe. 
 
 Stricken, tiitally stricken in that very member which was his 
 strength, his glory, and his jiride, turning his steps away from the 
 Senate after those sad and fruitless efforts to grasji a new life had 
 all ])roved unavailing, calm, comixised, resolute, resigned, he sought 
 his own home. Hai)j)ening in Atlanta on the IXth of July, just 
 (ine month before his death, I called to see him. I found him, hiin 
 who was in some respects the greatest talker I had ever known, 
 utterlv jiowcrless of speech. On his knee he held a paper uj)on 
 which he wrote slowly with a pencil these words: 
 
 Wish I could talk. My )iresent doctors have givin me to nnderstamr thai 
 1 cannot recover, and my time is uncertain — from a t'i'W months to several 
 years. Have told me to employ :iity otherdoctors and remedies I see proper. 
 
 He gave it to nic to I'cad and 1 lirought it away with nie. It is 
 here, and those who know his handwriting will recognize the 
 i'aniiliar characters. His eyes as he gave it had a look of inex- 
 pressible sadness, but not of regret or rei>ining. He had sought 
 the refuge of home to <lie. He knew full well, as he so pathetic- 
 ally wrote, that his "time was uncertain," but he was in the })lace 
 he had chosen to take his last look of the earth. Surrounded by 
 friends, in his own home, under his own native skies, amid the 
 ■scenesof his childhood, his youth, an<l his manhood, with the silver 
 sheen of the maples to greet his weary eyes in the sunlight, and the 
 soft lingual accents of his native South from all the mvriad voices 
 of the street, and the subtle sweetness of the honeysuckle, the ja.s- 
 niine, and the roses stealing in the long smnmer afternoons through 
 his open windows, there where the nights always bring silence and 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. HARROW, OF GEORGIA. 51 
 
 rest and every morning its promise, lie sat jiatiently awaiting his 
 summons. AVlien it came he received it — 
 
 Like one wlio wraps the drapery ot'liiK coiuL alxnit liim 
 And lies down to pleasant dreams. 
 
 Tlie President ^j/'o tempore. Tiie (jiiestion is on tiie adoj)tion of 
 tlie resolutions presented by the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Brown]. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed ta unanimously ; and (at one o'clock 
 and thirty minutes p. ni.) the Senate adjourned. 
 
PROCEEDINGS IX THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 In THK HmsK of REPnESENTATIVKS, 
 
 Januiirii 2"), ISSP,. 
 
 MESSAGK FROM THE SEXATE. 
 
 A mes.sage tVum the Senate, by Mr. Sympsou, one ol'it^ clerks, 
 comniuuimted tn the Hoit.se resolutions adopted by the Senate on 
 the announcement of the death of Hon. Bexjamix H. Hii.i,, late 
 a Senator of the United States from the State of Georgia. 
 
 The Si'EAKEi;. The Ciiair lays before the House the resdUuiuiis 
 that have ju.st been received from the Senate. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 In tuk Sex.\tk qv the United States, 
 
 Janitarij 25. 1883. 
 
 UeDolrtd, That earnestly ilesiriug to show every jiossililo mark of re.iiiert to 
 the memory of Hon. Benjamin H. Hii.l, late a Senator of the United States 
 from the State of (ieorgia, and to manifest the high esteem iu which his emi- 
 nent public services and distinguished patriotism are held, the business o( 
 the Senate be now snspended that the friends and late associates of Senator 
 Hii.i. may pay fitting tribute to his high character, his public services, and 
 private virtues. 
 
 Benolted, That in the death of Senator Hii.r, the cimutry hassustaineil u loss 
 which has been felt and deplored to the utmost limits of the Union. 
 
 Kesolred, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these lesolnt ions to 
 the Honse of Representatives. 
 
 Kesoleed, That, as an additional mark of respect for the memory of the de- 
 ceased, the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
 Mr. Hammoxd, of Georgia. I submit the rcsiilutions whidi 1 
 send to the desk. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the House of Representatives has received with deep sorrow 
 the oflScial announcement of the death of Ben.iamin Haiivkv Hii.i.. late 
 United States Senator from the State of Georgia. 
 
 lieHOlved, That the House suspend its bnsiness. that fitting mention uniy be 
 made of his private virtues and his pulilic worth. 
 
 jResoh'ed, That at the conclusion of such tributes to his lueuKuy tlje House 
 shall stand adjourned. 
 
54 LIFE AXD CHARACTER OF BEXJAMIX H. HILL. 
 
 Address of Mr. Hammond, of Georgia. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: So many have spoken and written of the dead 
 Senator, so aptly have the prominent incidents of his life and 
 phases of his character been noticed that naught but repetition can 
 follow. But, representing the district in which he lived, having 
 practiced law at the same bar with him for twenty years, and l>eeii 
 long his neighbor and friend, I cannot allow this occasion to pass 
 without adding my triltutc to the many already so worthily be- 
 stowed. 
 
 Born without wealth, he owed to a relative the opportunity for 
 completing his education in the University of Georgia. There, in 
 1844, he bore off the first honor in a class noted for men \\\w be- 
 came prominent in the affairs of our State. 
 
 In 1845 he began the practice of law at I^a Grange, Troup 
 Countv, Georgia. In February, 1848, he was admitted to the su- 
 preme court of the State. Residing in the interior, among an agri- 
 cultural people, he luid but little use for such branches of the law 
 as commercial centers and seaports demand. He used no special 
 pleading except in the United States courts, in which, prior to the 
 war, the jurisdiction wa.s limited and the business meager. He 
 owned few books, and no large law library was within his reacii. 
 
 He did not become learned in the law by comparing system witii 
 svstem, the polity of our people with tiiose of other uations, 
 measuring their weights and computing their values as affected by 
 times, places and circumstances. But he had a strong and compre- 
 hensive mind, and had cultivated his intellectual forces until he 
 liad acquired that higli art so wejl describe<l by Cicero : " Quie docet 
 rem universam tribuere in partes, latentem explicare definiendo, 
 obscuram explanare interpretando ; ambigua primum videre, deiude 
 distinguere; postremo liabuere regulam quo vera et falsa jndicai'en- 
 ter et qua;, quibus positis, essent, qu£eque non essent, consequentia." 
 
 He cited but few authorities and seldom read from books. But 
 he had mastered our system of blended law and equity, and this 
 power of analysis and combination made liim strong before the 
 
JDDRESS OF itn. HAMilOND, OF GEORGIA. 55 
 
 beucli, searching out aud applying principles to facts. His diction 
 was clear, precise, forcible, and ornate. His splendid physique, his 
 graceful and manly delivery, his brilliant oi-atorv, now mild and 
 j)ersuasive, now furious as tlif storm, made hiiu an advocate unsur- 
 passed in our country. 
 
 Such ability aud accdmplishments commanded emplovment at 
 the highest compensation, and tiuuished ample means to supply the 
 wants and gratify the tastes of himself and family. A hundred 
 acres comprised his suburltau home and farm. In front were per- 
 haps twenty acres square on which grew nothing but massive oaks. 
 Midway between them a gravel carriage-way and granite walk led 
 to the top of a hill. There he built his house ; square, spacious, 
 aud ou three sides shaded by a colonnade of tall and heavy Corin- 
 thian columns. While one was struck with its adaptation to its 
 surnumdings, the fruits and fish-ponds in rear, the flowers in front, 
 prepared him fir the bnuntiful but unostentatious hospitality and 
 plaiu'but tasteful adornment within the lawyer's home. 
 
 Here, in the midst of his family, of which he was at once the stay 
 and idol, we leave him to glance at his career in the broader field 
 of politics. Thus it has been epifomized by himself in the Con- 
 gressional Du'eetory : He was State representative in Georgia in 
 1851 aud State senator in 1859-1860. He ran as the candidate of 
 the American party against Hirani Warner in 1855, aud for gov- 
 ernor of Georgia in 1857 against Governor (now Senator) Brown. 
 He was presidential elector on the Fillmore aud Donelson ticket in 
 1856, and on the Bell and Everett ticket in 1860. He was a dele- 
 gate to the State convention of Georgia in 1861, and advocated the 
 Union until secession had been irrevocably resolved upon ; Ijecame 
 a delegate to the provisional congress of the Confederate States and 
 a senator in its regular congress. He was elected to the Forty- 
 fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Garnett 
 McMillan, and was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress, but resigned 
 upon his election to the United States Senate. There he remain<>d 
 from the 5th of March, 1877, till his death. 
 
 The time thus covered was long. It was burdened by the grand 
 events which led up to the war, by that terrible struggle for su- 
 
56 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BEXJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 premacv and tlie strife and convulsions of the people slowly wan- 
 dering hack through untrieil patlis to peace. 
 
 One part of it we may dwell upon, because he always mentioned 
 it with such self-satisfaction — that was his love for the Union of 
 the States. He livvoretl the Clay compromise measures of 1 850 ; 
 he supj)orted Howell Cobb for governor as the candidate of the 
 Constitutioual Union party upon a platform declaring those com- 
 ])romises " fair, just, and equitable," and aided in jailing up for him 
 a then unprecedented majority in a gubernatorial race in our State. 
 
 This platform of 1855 spoke of "the maintenance of the Union 
 of these United States as the paramount political good." By that 
 of 1856 "the perpetuation of tiie Federal Union" was regarded 
 " as the palladium of our civil ami religious liberties and the only 
 sure bulwark of American independence." That of 1860 — 
 
 L'ewhed, That it is both the part nf patriotism ami of duty to ri-coguize uo 
 political principles otbertliau the Constitution of the I'onntry, the Union of 
 the States, and the enforcement of the laws. 
 
 He opposed the calling of the Georgia State eomcntion of 1860. 
 He was elected thereto to opj)Ose secession. In that body, com- 
 posed of the flower of our State, men superior to him in age and 
 political experience, he led the fight for Governor Jolinson's reso- 
 lutions for a convention of States, to defeat those of Judge Xesbit 
 for immediate disunion. Though his motion failed, he voted 
 against the declaratory resolution for secession with a minority of 
 less than a third of the convention. South Carolina had seceded; 
 Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama had gone. Georgia then .seemed 
 to him to have no choice lietweeu joining her fortunes with theirs 
 and confusion and chaos within her l)orders. He therefore then 
 sought to make the convention unanimous for secession. And 
 when the war was over, at an expense of nearh- ^?2,000, he placed 
 in front of that broad walk to his housi' immense iron gates, on 
 each of which were shown our flag and eagle, that in going in and 
 out he and his children might ])c daily reminded of the imperish- 
 able ensigns of their country. 
 
 But while he had struggled for the Union, none doubted his de- 
 votion to the Soutiiern cause. Wliile Georgia's colonial flag- floated 
 
ADDBESS OF MU. HAMMOND, OF CEOIIGIA. 57 
 
 over tlie capitol at Milludyeville lie was chosen by tlii' couveutiou 
 of 1860 as a delegate to the provisional congress, charged by a reso- 
 lution of our State to form a government " modeled as nearly as 
 ))racticable on the basis and principles of the (jcovernment of the 
 United States of America." 
 
 The first session of our general assembly elected him senatoi- in 
 the congress of the Confederate States, over I^aw and Glovernor 
 Johnson, who had opposed secession, and Iverson, Jackson, and 
 Toombs, who had urged disunion. And in that senate the confi- 
 dence of his State was supplemented by that of President Dax'is and 
 all the most earnest friends of the new government. 
 
 That government failed, but his career was not ended, 'ilie 
 war restored the Union. But how changed was the situation I 
 The South did not concede that its quarrel had been unjust or its 
 action wrong. There, as here, the soldiers gloried in their records. 
 There, as here, h<' who boi-e a wound received in battle was re- 
 garded as holiling a patent to the love and admiration of his fel- 
 lows. 
 
 The Union was restored in law, Ijiit without tiic ante-belhun 
 surroundings. The Constitution was changed in essentials whicli 
 the North thougiit would strengthen our system, but wliicli the 
 South thought subversive of the fundamental principles of our 
 (jfovernment. 
 
 A new element was incorporated into the body-politic. The 
 Nt>rth thofight that necessary to secure what it called " the fruits 
 of the war;" the South thought that thereby her civilization was 
 endangered and the safeguards of constitutional liberty strained 
 to their uttennost. "Reconstruction" came in all its various 
 phases — ilisfranchisement of former citizens and enfranchi.semeut 
 of firmer slaves, martial law, and bayonet rule. 
 
 The South was repeating the mournful Jeremiad : 
 
 We are orphans ami fatherless, our motliers are as widows. * » « 
 Our uecks are under persecution ; we labor and have no rest. • * ♦ 
 Servants have ruled over us ; there is none to deliver us out of their hand. 
 
 Mr. Hill heard and determined to strike for deliverance. Oc- 
 {•npying no official position, he could appeal only as a private citizen. 
 He had been well trained for such work. In 1855 he had met 
 
58 LIFE AMI iJIAH.K'TER of BENJAillS H. HILL. 
 
 Warner, ex-judge ot" our liighest court, strong, logical, and of spot- 
 less reputation for integrity, and reduced a large majority to al- 
 most nauglit bv commanding eloquence ou the stump. In his raiv 
 for governor and canvassing as Presidential elector lie luid I)cconie 
 well known throughout tiie State. He was ranked among the very 
 best of a host of gifted men. 
 
 He never told an anecdote, indulged iu no flights of fancy ; he 
 quoted neither poet nor classic, yet he charmed and enchained his 
 audiences. 
 
 This new field suited his manner and disposition. His defiant 
 sjieecli at Davis Hall, his denunciations at the Busii Arbor, at 
 Atlanta, electrified his sympathetic hearers. A larger mass was 
 enthused by his " Notes on the Situation," written witli a pen 
 dippeil in the very gall of bitterness. Invective was his forte, and 
 in tliese cfloi-ts he excelh^d himself. He chafed as a caged lion as 
 he saw statute after statute aimed by Congress again.st the political 
 equality of his native State and lier rightful rule thrice displaced 
 bv martial law. He believed all those measures '' unconstitutional, 
 null, and void," and tliat liis would l)e the glory of linving them 
 so denounced. 
 
 He and his courageous comrades revived the drooping hopes and 
 rekindled the courage of our people, and soon saw Georgia resume 
 her normal position as a State in the Union, and strengthen by her 
 counsel and example her struggling sisters of the South. But in 
 all else there was signal failure. The changes wrougiit by war 
 were unalterable, and he accepted the inevitable. 
 
 These topics are mentioned only because they cover so large a 
 part of Mr. Hii-l's public life. They are of great weight and full 
 of interest, but may not be considered now. Better that the emljers 
 die out than that they sliould be rekindled by exposure, ^^'itll 
 restoration came peace and commerce and social intercourse. I'as- 
 sious cooled, old memories revived, common interests urged to 
 common thought and purpose. 
 
 Soon he was elected Ileprcsentative and tiicn Senator. The 
 positions assigned him here on committees and in debates show 
 that his reputation was well established and national. His conduct 
 here, his votes and speeches have passed into iiistoi-y. They are 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. HAMMOND, OF GEORGIA. 59 
 
 too recent to need comment or justify discussion now. The pride 
 of his State was seconded by tiie country which cliccrtully coimted 
 iiim aniony; tlie oreat men of our auc. 
 
 His name may not be associated with any great reform ; his 
 genius may not be crystallized in any statute of our country. This 
 may be because lie belonged to that large class of orators who build 
 not themselves, but l>y encouragement and criticism perfect the 
 building of others. < )r it may be that a tree so frecjucntly and so 
 violently transplanted could not yield its natural fruitage until 
 time had cured its shocks. That time was not given. In the 
 zenith of his powei's the end came. 
 
 That tongue so clo([uent Mas being by a cancer destroyed. Tiic 
 cruel knife, intended to stay, seemed but to hasten the catastrophe. 
 Nor nature nor art tould arrest its progress. With mind unim- 
 paired he waited and patiently suffered the ttirtures which preceded 
 death. As the sun rose n])on the earth on thi' lljtli of August last, 
 he was gone. 
 
 His long suffering had mellowed admiration into love. Our 
 capital city was draped in mourning, its bu.siness stopped, and its 
 organizations, private and public, \'ied with each other in expres- 
 sions of sorrow. All parts of our State sent delegations to his 
 funeral. Through a long lane of sympathizing fellow-citizens, 
 Representaitives and Senators bore him to his grave. 
 
 Thev had sat in the church to which he lielonaed and heard the 
 pastor, his life-loug friend, tell (^f his early conversion and his en- 
 during faith. Long after his power of speech was gone, as the 
 cruel cancer was eating his earthly life away, he thought and wrote 
 of life eternal. Once, when engaged in such high thought, he had 
 rea<l by his pastor Paul's grand reasoning about the fiict and 
 necessity of tlie resurrection. Responding, with tremulous, dying 
 hand lie wrote : 
 
 If a gi-ain of corn will die and then rise again in intiuite beauty, why may 
 not I die and then rise again in infinite Iieanty and life ? How is the last a 
 greater mystery than the tirst ? And hy so much as I exceed the grain of 
 coin in this life, why may I not exceed it in the new life ? How can we limit 
 the nower of Him who made the grain of corn to die, and then made the 
 same grain again in such wonderful newness of life? 
 
 His great soul had gra.sped the sublime "mystery" that "this 
 
GO LIFE AXI) (TtAKACTER (H-BES.J lillX B. HILL. 
 
 (■(irriij(til>k' must ])iit on incorrnptifiii ami this mortal must put on 
 immortalitv." And when, on a hiter occasion, lie wi'ote \\n- thi> 
 mau ofGoil, " I cannot sujjpress a certain elation at the thought of 
 o-oing," he had evidently caught the triumphant enthusiasm oi'thc 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, when he concluded : 
 
 So when this corruptible shall have put ou incorruptiou, ami this iiuutal 
 shall have put ou iuinmrtality, then shall be brought to pass the sayiug that 
 is writteu, Death is swallowed iiji in victory. 
 
 O death, where is thy stiui; ? O grave, where is thy victiu'v ? 
 
 Address of Mr. Speer, of Georgia. 
 
 Mr. .Spe.vkf.r : To eulogize the deeds and preserve tiie memories 
 of tho.se who either in peace or war have conferred benefit.? or lus- 
 ter on their eountrv has ever among the civilized heen regarded a 
 privilege and a duty. 
 
 The desire of inspiring an ambition to emulate such e.xajnples 
 has doul)tless given birth to such usages and .sentiments. Xor can 
 it be denie(i tiiat tlie means arc coiulncive to a beneficial end. Tiie 
 human mind is so constituted that it is not only interasted, it i.s 
 aroused and stimulati'd by lofty idcids of excellence. Indeed, a clear 
 (•oneeption of what has been done, and therefore what can be done, 
 i.s an iinjwrt^mt factor in achieving eminence in any profe.s.sion or 
 in any enterprise. 
 
 Caesar might never have won his .splendid triumphs as soldier and 
 statesman had he not clianced to see in an obscure town in Spain a 
 statue of Alexander the Great. His passion for military glor\- 
 was then and there firefl by the thought that tlie Maeeilonian at 
 thirty years of age had coutjuered the world, while he, thougii thirty- 
 five, had achieved but little renown. It is certain that an intense 
 interest in the lives and deeds of the great men of tlieir common- 
 wealths formed no small part of the patriotism of the ancient Greeks. 
 Athens was l)ut a vast museum of architecture, sculpture, and paint- 
 ing dedicated to the national glory and the worship of the gods. 
 The city was full of the memorials of actual hi.storv. Its youth 
 were ijerpetually surrounded with incentives to patriotic devotion. 
 Every street and square from the Piraeus to the Acropolis was 
 
ADDRKSS OF MR. Sr£EB, OF GEORGIA. 61 
 
 adorned with statues (bv the most consumniato masters that ever 
 gave life to marble) of the great men of the republic : Solou the 
 lawgiver, Couon the admiral, Ptiricles the mightiest of their states- 
 men, an<l Demosthenes the prince of their orators, in im))crishable 
 marble, gave inspirati(ni to the Athenian youth. 
 
 Twenty-three centuries have not extinguished tliis sentiment of 
 veneration for the illustrious dead. It still lives to console and ele- 
 vate humanity. Its memorials are found to-day in every civilized 
 land. On the banks of the Danube, that historic river whose waves 
 have witnessed the march of tiie hordes of Attila and the paladiii> 
 of Ciiarlemagne, whose shores have echoed to the tramji of tiie 
 Roman legions, the hymns of the crusaders, and the artillcrv of 
 Xajxileon, stan<ls a nolilc structure of marble called liic Hall of 
 Heroes, a niodei'n X'allialhi, tilled with the effigies ol'tiie great men 
 of all (iermany. '" By tiie soft, blue waters of Lake Lucerne," savs 
 the eloquent Jleagher, " stands the chapel of William Tell. In 
 the black aisle of the old cathedral of Inuspruck the peasant of the 
 Tvr()l kneels before the statue of Andrew Hofer. In her new senate 
 hall England bids her sculptors place theimagesof her noblest sons, 
 her Hampden and her Russel. In the great American Repul)lic, 
 in that capital city which bears his name, rises the momuiient of 
 the Father of his Country." Yes, even in young America, the ideal- 
 izing power of the painter and the scul{)tor are emjiloyed to kindle 
 the generous ambition of the y(nithful a.-pirant to fame. Sir, iiow 
 aj)}u)sitc in this wjuuection are the melodious verses of (_'ouj>er: 
 
 Patriots liavp toiled, and in their eiiiintry's cause 
 Bletl nolily ; and their dei'ds, astliey deserve. 
 Receive proud recoiiiiieuse. We give in charge 
 Tbeir names to the sweet lyre. The historic ninsc, 
 Proud of the treasure, marches with it down 
 To latest times ; and sculpture in her turn 
 Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass 
 To guard them and immortalize her trust. 
 
 We should not ilefraud the illustrious dead of their rightfid re- 
 ward, that reward which is the great moral compensation fiir con- 
 temporaneous prejudice and injustice. Xay, more, we slKJuld never 
 take away from coming generations the strongest incentive to pa- 
 triotism, to the love and service of their country. Rather let it be 
 
62 LIFE AND CHAUACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 proclainu'd by memorial service and iiKiiiuniciital marhlo, by noble 
 and Ijeautifnl art, that those wlio consecrate their talents or their 
 lives to tlie state will not, shall not, be forgotten ; that they shall 
 live in memory so long as men shall reverence law, honor patriotism, 
 or love liberty. Thus may we hope for a long and glorious bead- 
 roll of great statesmen and gallant soldiers, and that it will never 
 be said of this Union of States as was said of ancient Rome, "Oc- 
 tavius has a party and Antony has a party, but the Republic has 
 no party." 
 
 In conformity, then, with a usage sanctioned by the wisdom of 
 ages of civilization, we have a.ssembled to pay a national tribute of 
 resj>ect to the memory of Bex.i.\min H. Hir,i-, the latedistinguished 
 Senator of Georgia. He has already been laid to rest beueath the 
 soil of that State which gave him birth, and which he served so long 
 and loved so well. Never were public esteem and j)rivate affection 
 more signally manifested than at his obsequies. The legislature of 
 Georgia has ordereil his portrait to be placed on the walls of the 
 capitol. Public munificence has ])rojected a stately monument to 
 mark the place of his burial and as a token of admiration for his 
 talents, recognition of his patriotic services, and respect and afTectiou 
 for his memory. 
 
 But it is not extravagant t(j say that neither funeral pomp nor 
 public eulogy, neither the painter's pencil nor the sculptor's chisel, 
 can do that for his memory which he has done for it himself. 
 
 Tt will not be ex])ected of me to undertake the superfluous task 
 of dwelling in detail on the events of his life, or of attenij)ting an 
 elaborate delineation of his character. This ha.s been done by the 
 ablest writers of the ])ress with an acuteness of analysis and an opu- 
 leuc*- of illustration that will convey to posterity a vivid couceptiou 
 of the great subject. This has been appropriately done in wise and 
 eloquent words in the other wing of the (Japitol by Senators who 
 have listened with admiration to the voice of our now silent but 
 once matchless orator. They may have agreed with him or thev 
 may have differed from him, but they could not fail to recognize bis 
 lofty and chivalrous bearing, his commanding ability, his eloquent 
 reasoning, his ardent and devoted patriotism. These will be remem- 
 bered when the a.sperities of political controversy are forgotten. I 
 
ADnnESfi or mr. speer, of georci/a. 63 
 
 can say, however, f'n nil an intimate personal aciinaintanee with liim, 
 that he was a man of uninipeachahlo integrity, ever evineino- bv pre- 
 cept and example his respect for morality and religion. The moral, 
 the religions, the charitable, the educational institutions of lii.s State 
 have lost in him an influential friend and a generous lienefaetor. 
 
 His name was a tower of strength to every good cause in which 
 it was enlisted. One trait only will I stress in this presence, and 
 tliat i.s his patriotism. He loved his country, his whole countrv, 
 its Constitution, its laws, its liberties. He was a man to whom the 
 whole countrj' was ever more than a part. Originally a member of 
 the old Whig party, an enthusiastic disciple of Clay and AVebster, 
 he loved as they did the ITnion cemented by the blood of (jur Kev- 
 olntionary fathers. He regarded that Union a-s a ])erpetual bond 
 of national brotherhood, and as associated with the must precious 
 memories of the past and freighted with the brightest lio}>esof the 
 future. In the darkest period of that fien^e sectional controversy 
 between the Xorth and the South, whicii ripened iiitu one of the 
 most gigantic wars in the bloodstained annals of our race until hope 
 had been swept away by the fiery tide of revolution, he continued 
 to hope and to temper the counsels of the people. He was there- 
 after thniuglidut the struggle steadfast to his kindred and hi> people. 
 This is characteristic of the man, and will be appreciated by the 
 generous everywhere. His course wa.s such that it could not be said 
 of him as Dr. Johnson said of Junius: 
 
 Fiiidiug siMtitiou in the ascindaiit he was able to ailvaiiee it; fiudiii^ the 
 nation oomhustible, he was able to intlamo it. 
 
 He knew that our .system of government, like all human institu- 
 tions, however wise in theory and successful in its general operatiun, 
 is liable to abuse; that unwise laws were sometimes enacted; tiiat 
 salutary laws were sometimes evaded and even resisted; that party 
 spirit, the bane of all free institutions, which AVashington himself 
 pronounced the worst eneiu}- of popular goverinnent, was sometimes 
 pushed to the verge of remorseless and maddening convulsion. But 
 be never despaired of the Republic. He had little sympathy with 
 that dangerous folly which pretends that our national prosperity is 
 on the wane; that the nieridiau of our coiuitry's glory has been 
 reached and passefl; that nothing is to be expected but venality in 
 
64 LIFE ASD CHARACTER OF BEXJAMIX E. HILL. 
 
 legislative Ixidies ami curruption in our courts uf justice; that the 
 "American Astrea, like the goddess of old, lia-s fled to the stars." 
 
 He held, and wisely iield, that the founders of our Governmeut 
 and their descendants iiad accomplished more and better results \vith- 
 in the centurv of tlicir existence than had ever heen acconiplisiied 
 in tlie same time in tiie history of any race. He was persuaded tliat 
 they had secured i'ov tli<'mselvfs a lai'gcr auKiunt of tiie substantial 
 blessings of life than are en'nATd by any peojilc on tiic gloi)e. 
 
 He believed that our coinitry might, and l)y the blessing of Pnjvi- 
 den<'e w<iuld, reach a lieiglit of pro.sperity of wliicli ilic world as yet 
 has seen no example. 
 
 But I fitrbear. Six months have passed since he was taken from 
 us. His protracted sufferings and hopeless disease |)repared us for 
 the inevitable residt. I>ut I i-an not but feel to-ilay, as I did when 
 it was first announced that Senator Hll.l, was dead, that (Jeorgia 
 had hardlv another, I migiit say not another, such life to lose. He 
 was unselfish, thoughtful of all, generous and kind to all. His lifi' 
 and his labors were consecrated to the welliire and happiness of 
 others; and, more than all, "for the profit of the people, for the 
 a<lvaiiccuicnt of the nation." 
 
 Address of Mr. Tucker, of Virginia. 
 
 Mr. .SpKAKEK: In the natural j^rief which (ieoryia feels ibr thir 
 loss of her great son, it is not fitting that Virginia should manifest 
 her sympathy in silence at the tomb of one, who often said he felt 
 like standing in her presence ever with unc(jveretl brow. In this 
 public calamity which touches the whole country Virginia begs to 
 lay the triliiUe of her resjject on hi.s grave. 
 
 My actpiaiiitaiH'C with the late Senator Hii-L began with our en- 
 trance into this Hall as mcmliers of the Forty-fourth Congress. Tt 
 ripened into intimacy from an association as members of the Com- 
 mittee on Ways and Me:iiis. That relation has no doubt made it 
 seem appropriate that I shoidd have been invited to say .something 
 on this occasion. 
 
 Mr, Hiix was born iu Georgia iu September, 1823, of a parent- 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. TUCKEU, or VinciMA. 65 
 
 age which wa.-; of Kiiglii^h urigiii ami Jiad I'or oeiicratioiis lived in 
 ills native State. He loved her with the devotion of a true and 
 faithful son. His father, though not very lilierally educated, cov- 
 etal high culture for his children, and secured a classical education 
 for his distinguished son, which he completed at the T^niversitv of 
 Georgia, at- Athens, in 1844. 
 
 Mr. Hilt, was admitted to the har in 1845, and reached tliatem- 
 iueuce in his profession early in his career which great talents, 
 fidelity, and enthusiasm will always secure. He entered the 
 legislative halls of Georgia as early as 18ol. He was a candidate 
 for Congress in 185o and for goveruor in 1857, but was defeated 
 on both occasions on political grounds; but it speaks stronglv for 
 his rapid rise in public estimation that at so early an age he was 
 nominated for tiic chief executive office of that great Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 He was a decided Whig in politics, and was on the electoral ticket 
 of Bell and Everett in the memorable contest of 1860. 
 
 The election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency in that year caused 
 the call of the convention in Georgia in January, 18G1 , which passed 
 the ordinance for the secession of that State from the Union. To 
 that convention Mr. Hill was elected; and in its debates he took 
 a pi'omineut part in opposition to secession and in favor of awaiting 
 in the Union the results of the triumph of the Repulilican partv. 
 
 When the convention decided against his views he threw himself 
 with all the ardor of his powerful intellect into the cause of the 
 Confederacy. He was elected to the provisional congress at Mont- 
 gomery, and afterward to the senate of the Confederate States, in 
 which he served his State with great zeal and signal ability until 
 the close of the war. He was in 1865 arrested and imprisoned in 
 Fort Lafayette for some time by the Federal authorities; and upon 
 his release returned to the bar, practicing his profession with great 
 success and participating with the Democratic party in the political 
 questions of the period of reconstruction. He was elected to the 
 Forty-fourth (Jongress and was assigned by ^Ir. Speaker Kerr to 
 a position on the Committee on Ways and Means, of which my hon- 
 orable friend from Illinois [Mr. iMorrison] was chairman. Of 
 that committee there remain in this House but three members, the 
 5 H 
 
6G LIFE AND CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 then chairmun, the present honorable chairman of tlie committee 
 [Mr. Kelley], and myself. 
 
 In January, 187G, the debate on the amnesty bill wa.'! opened 
 with such a display of j)oliti('al excitement and scctiimal bitterness 
 as I have never seen since that time, and wiiich 1 am glad to liope 
 will never be seen again in this Hall. 
 
 In that debate no one who heard it can ever fol^et the parlia- 
 mentary eloquence and ability of Mr. Blaine and of Cieneral (Jar- 
 field, and the no less skillful and powerful speech of Mr. IIiiJ.. It 
 was the battle of giauts, and ]\Ir. Hill was the equal of any man 
 who took part in it. It placed him at once in the front rank of 
 debaters in the American Congress. 
 
 Whether in the labors of the Committee on Ways and ^^eans on 
 the questions of tariff' and finance, or in the discussions in the House, 
 ]Mr. Hill continued while a member of 'this bodv to rise hisiher 
 and higher in public estimation until his election to the Senate in 
 the winter of 1877. 
 
 It is not too much to sa}' that as a Senator he fully inaintained 
 his high reputation, and measured swords in debate on few occa- 
 sions in which he was not victor, and in none in which he was van- 
 quished. 
 
 A mortal disease, insidious in its progress and painful in its na- 
 ture, ended his life in the summer of last year, and the grave has 
 closed upon a career which, though not prolonged to old age, was 
 one of the most brilliant and memorable in our parliamentary his- 
 tory. 
 
 The elements whi<'h make up the character of a remarkable man 
 it is interesting to analyze and portray. I feel inconqx'tcnt to do 
 so satisfactorily in this case, for while our intercourse was always 
 familiar and cordial, our relations were not so close and confiden- 
 tial as to have enabled me to judge and measure him with critical 
 accurac}-. 
 
 His tall anil striking person, his grave and thoughtful face, his 
 clear but dreamy eye, and the gleam of sunshine which lit up his 
 countenance when friendly intercourse detached his tlioughts from 
 the subject in which his mind was absorbed, all combined to inter- 
 est, attract, and im])rcss every person who came in cdntacf with 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. TUCKER, OF VIRGIXIA. 67 
 
 him. His ringing voice; his earnest, sometimes vehement, man- 
 ner; his bold and aggressiye style ; his strong, clear, and logical 
 reasoning; his exalted and eloquent declamation, and withal his 
 self-reliant and confident assertion of his views, made him one of 
 the most powerful and impressive speakers of his time. 
 
 He worketl with intense and concentrated energy. His mind 
 was capable of great abstraction. In the companionship of his own 
 thoughts he Ijecame often um^nscious of all around him, and his 
 intellectual powers then glowed with the fires of his own enthusia.sm. 
 
 He was an intellectual athlete. His strengtli was not mere dead 
 force, but his sinewy traine enabled him to turn an adversary in 
 the decisive wrestle, when he himself seemed to be overthrown. 
 He was not technical in his reasoning, but cut down to the root of 
 the matter of debate. His nature was bold and aggressive. If his 
 foe was in ambush, he uncovered him and forced him into the open 
 field. His tactical method was assault. He strucli for his enemy's 
 center and rarely attacked his flank. But when assailed and in 
 retreat, he would suddenly turn upon his foe, retrieve his loss, at- 
 tack on flank or center a.s bast he might, and snatch victory from 
 the jaws of defeat. He was formidable in tlie ojwniug of battle, 
 chiefly for attack, but he was as dangerous in retreat at its close, 
 when pres.sed by a too confident opponent. Disaster did not dis- 
 may — mishap did not demoralize him. His ample resources were 
 adecpiato to any emergency, and he would convert-wiiat seemed a 
 fatal mistake into the source of a final triumph by his quick and 
 bold repulse of his assailant, which he often pushed to a complete 
 rout of his forces. He argued from the workshop of his own 
 brain. He intensified thought upon the issue, aud discarding au- 
 thority and extrinsic aids, drew from the well-furnished armory of 
 his own mind the weapons and munitions for the conduct of his 
 warfare. 
 
 These (lualities made him a great advocate at the bar, whether 
 before juries or courts, and a great debater in the halls of legisla- 
 tion; indeed, as formidable in these respects as any man of his day. 
 
 I believe he thought best on liis feet. The fervor of his intel- 
 lect niade his arguments present convictions which might pass away 
 and give place to others as strong under mental action at another 
 
68 I'lFF. ^XD CHARACTER OF BENJAMIS E. HILL. 
 
 time. To this peculiarity in his mental operations was due what 
 seeiiied alack of" consisteucy sometimes in the conclnsionshe reached. 
 His intellectual activity was so powerful as to make him seem in- 
 tolerant to his opponents; but T do not believe it touched his heart. 
 He struck the shield of his foe as a knight in the tournament, 
 vigorously but without animosity; and when the strife was ended 
 he could lift up the adversary he had struck down and clasp him 
 in friendlv regard with the liand which dealt the blow . 
 
 In his social life, while often abstracted by the thoughts which al)- 
 sorbed him, he was genial, kind, and loving, (ienerous and brave, 
 he grappled to him friends with hooks of steel. Honest in his 
 dealing, sincere and truthful in his intercourse, and cordial in his 
 friendships, he died mourned by hosts of warm admirers and fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 He was not, I think, a great reader of books. For works of fic- 
 tion he had no taste. He told me once he had never read one of 
 Scott's novels, after I had playfully called him in debate a Dalgetty, 
 of whose name and character he was ignorant. But his reading was 
 such as strengthened his powerful mind, and furnished his style with 
 the materials which gave grace and beauty to the solid and simple 
 Doric of his severe and classic oratory. 
 
 It was natural for such a man to have ambition. The eaglet in 
 his home nest on the mountain cliff feels in his unfledgc<l wing the 
 power to st)ar toward the object on which he ever looks with un- 
 blenched eye. So genius, with prophetic instinct, aspires to achieve 
 its con.scious destiny. It seeks, or at least may not, without fault, 
 put aside the opportunity which will enable it to do so. When Lord 
 Selborne reached the woolsack some friend congratulated him on 
 attaining the summit of his ambition. In substance he replied, 
 "Xot so; I have gained the opportunity to serve my country; the 
 summit of my ambition is to serve her well, and to do good." 
 
 Such ambition is a noble virtue. The aspiration to uphold the 
 riirht, to dcstrov the wrona;, and to do aood, is all of lunnan olorv 
 which it is fit for human life to aspire to win. That passion for 
 place and office, Avithout consciousness of ability to fill it wgll and 
 for the pul)lic good, is base and mean ; it i-; a vice, the vice of our 
 dav, and leads to crime. 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. HOUSE, OF TENNESSEE. 69 
 
 Mr. Hii-L uspircd for public positions fi-oiu tlic st'lf-(;oiiseioiis- 
 ness of liis fitness to serve his country in and through them. In 
 hini it was a noble virtue. 
 
 He bore his prolonged and painful illness with patience, fortitude, 
 and resignation. As the liopes of continued life fiidud away the 
 light of immortality gleamed upon his latter]days witii the assurance 
 of peace and eternal joy. The tongue which had thrilled the multi- 
 tude and electrified the forum and liie Senate, palsied by his mortal 
 disease, faltered and was almost still. Yet it cheers us to know that 
 in the death valley through which his great soul was called to pass, 
 God gave that tongue the power to whisper in tones of touching 
 tenderness and faith as his eagle eye gazed upon the opening glories 
 of the immortal life, "Almost home!" 
 
 The paths of gli)rv lead but to the grave. 
 
 Xo farther? Ay ! through the grave, where human glory ends, 
 the Christian hope plants our feet upon that path which leads to 
 celestial glory in the bosom of our Father and our God ! 
 
 Address of Mr. House, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : When the hand of death struck the name of 
 Bexjami>' H. Hiix, of Georgia, from the roll of Senators the 
 sad event was deplored not only by the State that had honored him, 
 but by the whole country. All realized the fact that a man of 
 great intellectual power liad fallen, and that a vacancy had been 
 made in the national councils \vhieh could not be readily supplied. 
 
 I well remember the first time I ever met him. It was at a 
 mass-meeting during the Presidential campaign of 1860, at Knox- 
 ville, Tennessee. His fame even at that time, when he was com- 
 paratively a young man, had traveled beyond the limits of his 
 own State. I recall most vividly the impression he made ou me 
 on that occasion as one of the most eloquent and j'owerful pojiular 
 orators to whom I had ever listened. The crowd was numbered by 
 the thousand, and the speaking took place in the open air in a 
 beautiful grove near the town. Without much seeming effort on 
 
70 LIFE AND CHARACTEli OF BESJAMIN H. BILL. 
 
 his part ln' li(l<l the uudividetl attention of the vast assembly dur- 
 ing an address of some two or throo lionrs. I can never forget the 
 trepidation and misgivings with wliieh 1 arose, according to the 
 programme of tlie day, to iiddress the audieuc-e on the same side 
 of the qnestion, throngii fear that it wonld be impossible for me 
 to sav anvthing that would interest a crowd that had listened to 
 his magnific«'nt effort. 
 
 I saw him no more until I met him at Richmond in the fall of 
 1861 as a member of the provisional congress of the Confederate 
 States. At the end of the provisional congress our paths diverged. 
 He entered the C"(jnfederate .senate, where he serve<l during the 
 remaindt-r of the war. 
 
 The next time 1 met iiim was in this Hall as a memlxT of the 
 Fortv-fourth Congress. That Congress w'as the first one after the 
 war to which full tlclegations of representative men were admitted 
 from the Southern States. They came to Washington fully ini- 
 pres.sed with the difficulties and complications that stirronndeil 
 them. They ielt tliat the peo))le whom they represented, gn^iitly 
 impoverished l)v the war and struggling to repair their ruined 
 fortunes, would be held to a strict accountability for the iwtions 
 :ind utterauces_of their representatives. Thus impressed and thus 
 appreciating the dangerous ground on which they stood and the 
 ilelicate relations which they sustained to the Government, they de- 
 termined to tread the path of patriotic duty so jdainly and firmly 
 that none <'ould fail to see that they fully and honestly aciiuiesct-d 
 in the results of the war, and were prepared to discharge in good 
 faith every demand imposed by the conditions of a r&stored Union 
 and the commnn welfare of a I'cunited people. I think I know the 
 animus of the Southern men who took their seats in this Hall as 
 Representatives in the Forty-fourth Congress. Whether I have 
 stilted it truly and fairly I confidently leave the records they have 
 made here to determine. 
 
 .Soon after the assembling of that Congress a general amnesty 
 bill wa.» introduced in the House by Hon. Samuel J. Randall, of 
 Pennsylvania, being similar in all respe<'ts to a bill which had 
 on two previous occasions pas.sed the House of Representatives but 
 failed in the Senate. The question arose of admitting Jefferson 
 
ADDRJCSS OF MI!. HOCSE, OF 'IFyXF^SFE. 71 
 
 Diivis to the benefits of the act. A ilistiuguished Rein-eseiitative 
 from Maine iu tlie course of his i'emari<s ii>»ed this strong and em- 
 phatic language : 
 
 Ami I, here before God, measuring my words, kuowiug their full extent 
 aud import, declare that neither the deeds of the Duke of Alva in the Low 
 Countries, nor the massacre of St. Bartholomew, nor the thumb-screws and 
 engines of torture of the Spanish Inquisition begin to compare iu atrocity 
 with the hideous crime of Andersonville. [Applause on the floor aud iu the 
 galleries.] 
 
 Up to this time uo Southern man liad taken any part in the pro- 
 ceedings. The discussion had not proceeded far before it became 
 evident that it was destined to provoke more or less of sectional 
 bitterness. The Representatives from the South deprecated aud 
 deplored the agitation of questions growing out of the war. They 
 felt that all such agitation was mischievous in its tendency and could 
 be productive of no good to their section of the countrv, and they 
 were anxious that all sucii questions should be relegiited to tlie 
 tribunal of history. But as the discussion progressed it assumed a 
 character which in their opinion demanded that a reply should be 
 made from a Southern stand-point. Mr. Hill, from his known 
 intimate relations with Jeffei-son Davis during the war, as well a.s 
 from his acknowledged ability, was generally recognized as'themost 
 appropriate Southern man to speak for his section in a debate which 
 all felt was destined to become historic. But little time for prepa- 
 ration was allowed him, as the discussion arose rather unexpectedly. 
 I know he felt deeply the responsibility and delicacy of his posi- 
 tion. To defend the Confcdci-ate government against the ciiarges 
 brought against it and maintain the honor of the Southern name 
 without savins' auvthino; that would militate against the interests of 
 
 .0.0 c 
 
 the Southern people in the prevailing temjier of the public mind of 
 the Xorth required the exercise of the coolest judgment and tlie 
 nicest discrimination. Thus restrained and shackled by the grave 
 considerations which surrounded the situation, he felt tliat he 
 could uot indulge tlie usual freedom of debate, and was therefore 
 forced to meet his adversaries iipou unequal terms. AVhen he 
 arose to address the House he faced a most attentive audience upon 
 the floor and in the crowded galleries. It was an occasion of deep 
 solicitude and dramatic interest. I will not risk the imputation 
 
72 I-IFE ASI) en IRJCTEI? OF PEXJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 (if iiitni<liiig iiiiiirii|i<i- anil miwclcnmc suggestions iijkhi tliis ucca- 
 sioii l)V cvi'ii a rcfcrciico to tlic jioints or details of tlie ilisciissioii. 
 It was watelicil with tlic kconost interest hy both sides of this 
 ( 'liamlicr, an<i in fact li\ the w liolc i-oiinti'v. it aroused fi-elings 
 wiiicli, J am happy to say, time has softene<l and tempered, and 
 wliieii I would be the hist to recall from tlie siiades of the unhappy 
 past. But justice to tlie dead requires that I shouhl not omit to 
 sav that, ditficnlt as were the requirements of the oeciLsion, South- 
 ern Representatives and the .Southern people felt that their gootl 
 name suffered no detriment from want of ability in its defender. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I recall another prominent tigure in that memonible 
 debate. James A. (iarfield, of Ohio, replied to Mr. Hill. If any- 
 one iiad been called on at that time to point out two men on tiiis 
 floor whose robust health and vigorous manhood gave the greatest 
 promise of a long lite, the selection could not have fallen upon any 
 two members more appro|)riately than upon James A. Gartield and 
 Bkx.iamin H. IIii.i.. How little we know or can know of what 
 the future has in stijrc for us. How soon were these tW() distin- 
 guished men, who encountered each other in that debate, doomed 
 to leave this world under circumstances of lingering and protracted 
 suffering, that stirred the sympathies of all. 
 
 The former in a short w'lile was transferred by the voice of his 
 State from this House to the Senate, and before he could assume the 
 duties of a Senator the voice of the American people called him to 
 tiie Presidencv. Honors were showered upon him with a j)rofusion 
 that left ambitifin but little to desire. He was inauguratecl amid 
 the well-wishes of the whole country. But while the tiiickly clu'^- 
 tered laurels u])on his brow went yet wet with morning dew — at a 
 moment least ex|)('ct<'il, in the lu^art of a populous city, in sight of 
 the Capitol — the ijullct of a l)ca^tly and vulgar assa-ssin laid him 
 lo^^•. The national heart stood still with horror when the first shock 
 of the gri'at crime was felt. As the distinguished sntH;rer lay upon 
 his bed of jiain, the hearts of his countrymen of all ])arties and all 
 sections visited the chamber where he struggled with death, breath- 
 ing sympathy for his condition and liope for his recovery. This 
 painful'solicituilc was merged into universal sorrow when tlie tele- 
 gra)ih bore tln' news to e\'ery part of the countrv that the struggle 
 
J DDE ESS OF MR. HOUSE, OF TENXESSEE. 73 
 
 was over. Tlie Democrat tori^ot tliat lie was a Re|)iil)licaii Presi- 
 dent, antl tlie .Southern man tliat lie iielonired to tiie .Vortli. All 
 party, all sei^tional feeling was lost in the profbtuul gloom tluit per- 
 vaded tlie whole eonntrv. lie hud met his fate and hoi-ne his great 
 sufferings with a i)atient ti)rtitiide and lofty courage which silenced 
 all criticism and melted all hearts, while it intensified the universal 
 horror with wlii<;h the a,ssassin's crime was regarded. For, Mr. 
 Speaker, whatever may be true of other peoples and other lauds, the 
 crime of assassiuation csin never be looked upon by the American 
 people with other feelings than those of execration and abhorrence. 
 It is a noxious plant that can never flourish in our soil. General 
 Garfield reached the highest position to which luiman amliition 
 can aspire; but the grandest projiortioiis which his character ever 
 assumed were displayed in the heroism of his death-bed. 
 
 ^Ir. Hii.]> was likewise called by the voice of his State to a scat 
 in the Senate. This was a field much better suited for the exercisi- 
 of his great gifts than the House of Representatives, and he soon 
 trained in that bodv the front rank as a debater and a statesman of 
 great and varied attainments. His speech in the Senate in the de- 
 bate on the liill prohiliiting the use of troops atthe[)olls was recog- 
 nized Ijy all who heard it or read it iis an effort of transcendent 
 ability. His analysis and exposition of our dual system of gov- 
 ernment, defining the powers that belonged to the States and those 
 that belonged to the Federal (Tovernment under the Constitution, 
 were thorough and profound. That speech alone was sufficient to 
 rank him in the first class of American statesmen, and to that class 
 he undoubtedly belonged. -Vs a debater he had few etpials, even 
 among the distinguished men whose learning and ability dignify 
 and adorn the American Senate. AMiether on the hustings address- 
 ing the masses of the people, in the forum before judges and juries, 
 or in the halls of Congress discussing great cpiestions of national 
 importance, he never failed to impress himself upon those who heard 
 him iis a man of great power and ability. Xo antagonist, whatever 
 his fame or prowess, ever encountered him upon any of those fields 
 of intellectual gladiature without feeling that he stood in the pres- 
 ence of a foeman worthy of his steel. But in the prime and pleni- 
 tude of his great powers, when he felt the solid ground of a well- 
 
74 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF SEXJAMIX H. HILL. 
 
 eamwl national reputation beueath liis feet and a long and a l)rilliant 
 career of honor and usefulness opening up before him, the admoni- 
 tion of death came, not, it is true, in the guise of an assassin's bul- 
 let, but in a form almost as tragic and no less certain. 
 
 Soon afler the meeting of the present Congress I visited the court- 
 room where President Garfield's assassin was being tried for his 
 life. On leaving I met Senator Hill, and we. walked some dis- 
 tance together. On the way I inquired as ti^ the condition of the 
 malady that had excited his fears and the apprehension of his 
 friends. I found him hopeful and cheerful, and even buoyant under 
 the conviction that he had experienced the worst and that he was 
 now in a sure way to permanent and final recovery. But not a 
 great while afterward I heard that he had been compelled to again 
 seek the offices of his surgeon. I felt tlien that he was a doomed 
 man — doomed to excrutiatiug suftering and certain death. 
 
 AVitli his robust constitution and great strength of will he made 
 a brave fight for his life, and sought all the means within his power 
 to jtrcserve and prolong it. But all efforts provetl unavailing, and 
 at last he went home to die. Within its peaceful bosom, surruiuidcd 
 by his family and friends, and by the people who admired and loved 
 and honoriHl him, he looked death calmly in tlie face as he watched 
 its approaches day by day, and knew that ni (thing could avert 
 the inevitable hour. How less than nothingness must have ap- 
 peared to hira all the glories of this world as lie passed tlirough liis 
 terrible ordeal of suffering to the grave that he saw opening to re- 
 ceive him. Distinguished ius was his life, all the honors that clus- 
 tered around it fade into insignificance in the presence of the sub- 
 lime courage and Christian patience and resignation that crowned 
 his death. 
 
 Men in the whirl of busy life and the carnival of earthly ambi- 
 tion may treat with a sneeror a jest the power of the Ciiristian relig- 
 ion to sustain the struggling soul amid the agonies of dissolving 
 nature and the gloom of approaching death ; but that sneer is robbed 
 of its sting and that jest loses its point beside the l)eds of protracted 
 suffering and lingering death from which the victorious spirits of 
 James A. Garfield and Benjamin H. Hill left their wasted tene- 
 ments of clay. 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. WELLBORN, OF TEXAS. 75 
 
 Mr. Speaker, sooner or later our struggle with the last enemy must 
 come ; for whatever may l>e our hopes, our ambition, our schemes 
 for the future, or may have been our achievements in the jVast, we 
 may be assured of one fact — time will overlook and death forget 
 none of us. And in that solemn hour which witnesses the exchange 
 of worlds the obscurest Christian that has honestly endeavored dur- 
 ina: an unobtrusive life to do his dutv toward God and man is more 
 tobc envied than the tallest son of intellectual pride, though he may 
 have walked the mountain ranges of human thought, without God 
 and without hope in the world. 
 
 Address of Mr. "Wellborn, of Texas. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: "How peaceful and how powerful is the grave I" 
 
 The qualities here ascribed to humanity's final resting-place are 
 none the less true because poetirally asserted. The grave is an 
 abode of pence and an instrumentality of power. In botii essentials 
 it is above the vicissitudes of time, "Bulwarked around and armed 
 with rising towers," earthly forces cannot break through nor raze. 
 
 \\'hether the sun shines in brightness, or the clouds droop nuu'k- 
 ilv ; whether g-entle breezes touch lightly, or the storm king rides 
 upon the whirlwind, tlic coijdition of the grave is always that of 
 repose. Enraged elements may beat down the monument, remorse- 
 less earthquakes swallow up the vault, but in the ideal grave, of 
 which the monument and vault are but unsubstantial types, peace 
 abideth ever. 
 
 Tranquil is the sleep of him upon whose honored grave the repre- 
 sentatives of millions of people, arrested for awhile in their ordi- 
 nary labors, are now laying the merited tributes of a nation's es- 
 teem ; tranquil will it remain until after the latter days, when the 
 promised summons spoke by angel tongue shall awake from the 
 embrace of death and call forth the relesised captive to those awards 
 fif brightness and joy, which, on the testimonies of time, have al- 
 ready been entered up in the record-book of eternity. 
 
 It is not the peace, however, but the power of the grave wliich 
 the memorial services of this hour most strongly proclaim. Oppor- 
 
76 LIFE AM) CHARACTER OF BESJAMIN U. HILL. 
 
 ttinitics iiegltH'teil and opjMirtuiiitics almsfd liavo caused tliousauds, 
 in dviiiir, tu leave heliind tlieiii but few evidences i)f tiieir having 
 lieen ; ur if many, only sad proofs (jf n»issj)ent and inisciiievous 
 lives. Hence, " Lived to little purpose," or " Ijived to a bad \^\\v- 
 pose," would be inscril)ed on many tonii)stones if tliey were truly 
 epitaplied. 
 
 Not so of the marble column which will point coming genera- 
 tions to the cousecrateil spot where lie entond)ed the ashes of CJeor- 
 gia's great Senator. The matchless talents nature gave him were 
 early dedicated to high aims, and the fruitful opportunities the wise 
 improvement of those talents afibrded sha])ed to their lx.'st uses. 
 From the j)eace of his grave, therefore, rises in |)ower an example 
 worthy of all imitation, grandly illustratiug how native talents use- 
 fully employed and properly directed can a<'hieve wide and lasting 
 renown in different and difficult walks of life, and how, in the su- 
 preme solemnity of the last hour, when earth and time are fast fad- 
 ing from view, they can nerve the soul of a feeble, waste<l frame 
 to bravely and triumphantly cross over the dark borders of that 
 mysterious land before whose veiled terrors strong manhood is wont 
 to tremble. 
 
 The examjde thus presented lijr our conteiuplation is made up 
 from the experiences of Mr. Hill, in private, i)rofessional, and pub- 
 lic life. Of the last two only w'" I speak, leaving to others more 
 familiar with it the portrayal of the first. It is not my purpose to 
 undertake a narrative of events, but simply a hurried statement of 
 traits of character which distinguished him in the public walks to 
 which fortune or incJination called him. And in this I shall not 
 aim at completeness, but only give a few of the impressions made 
 on my mind by a general observation of him as a lawyer, an orator, 
 a statesman, and a patriot ; nor shall I communicate these impres- 
 sions in words of studied panegyric. Too well do I recognize, as 
 applied to Mr. Hill, the truth of the apostrophe — 
 
 Nature doth muuru for thee. There is do need 
 For man to strike his plaintive lyre aud fail, 
 As fail he must, if he attempt thy praise. 
 
 The splendid triumphs of Mr. Hill's maturer years at the bar 
 show that he nnist have mastered the law a.s a science during the 
 
ADDRESS 01' M/i. nKl.LliOUX, OF TEXAS. 11 
 
 j)eriod of his professional pupilage. His attainments were not 
 limited to a few scattering rules and forms picked up fmm particu- 
 lar decisions used in cases with which he was connected, hut were 
 opinions and convictions formed from a searching and comprehen- 
 sive study of jurisprudence as a grand system of principles restinu- 
 on immutable foundations of right and justice. For the di.seoverv 
 of these principles he looked to the exercise of his own reason, and 
 in forensic contests relied mainly on a conscious knowletlge of the 
 principles thus discovered. Adjudicated cases he regarded as but 
 instances illustrating and applying principles. In other words, his 
 own reason, strengthened and equipped by the pupilage before men- 
 tioned, discovered and applied general principles; preredents were 
 invoked largely, if not only, to support and confirm the conclusions 
 of his own mind. This view accounts for the singular readiness 
 and accuracy with which he could meet the various and often un- 
 expected exigencies whicii comiilicated suits arc lialilc to develo|) 
 during the processes of trial. 
 
 Mr. Hill combined within himself tiic jurist and tiie advocate. 
 He was gifted with perception to discern and judgment to applv 
 apjiropriate principles to given states of facts. He had also a log- 
 ical and perspicuous style. The union of these qualities made him 
 cle;ir and forcible in the statement and proof of his premises, and 
 powerful if not resistless in the conclusions he sought to establish. 
 In law, as in politics, he wa< distinguished for originalitv of 
 thought rather tlian scliolarship. His was the grander power to 
 originate, not the lesser faculty of appropriating tiic creations of 
 others. He was a model, not a ty]>e. However so great the excel- 
 lency he may have attained unto in otiier jiursuits, the judicial his- 
 tory of Georgia, a-: well as the traditions of lier people, will alwavs 
 claim his legal attainments and forensic triumphs as among the 
 most l)rilliant experiences of liis brilliant life. 
 
 To intellectuality Mr. HiLi. added the power to feel and to will. 
 These mental endowments, with his fluency of language and at 
 times impassioned delivery, formed for liim what he became — one 
 of the orreat orators of his daw 
 
 o 
 
 Eloquence is defineil to be "the utterance of strong emotion in 
 a maunei' adapted to excite corresjvindent emotion in others. It 
 
78 LIFE AKD CHARACTEIl OF liEXJAillN H. HILL. 
 
 ordinarily implies elevatud and forcible thought, well-cliosou lan- 
 guage, an easy and effective utterance, and an impassioned manner." 
 Those who ever heard Mr. Hill at the bar, in legislative halls, or 
 on the stump, when the energies of his nature were thoroughly 
 aroused, could not have failed to recognize in his effort marvelous 
 and unmistakable manifestations of all these qualities. I remem- 
 ber to have heard a speech he once made on a noted occasion char- 
 acterized by a critical auditor as " logic on tire." And it was logic, 
 burning logic; not the formal disputation of a schoolman, but the 
 ]>ower of passionately-expressed thought unto tiic conviction and 
 moving of his hearers : 
 
 And each man would turn 
 Aud gaze on his neighbor's face, 
 That with the like dnnib wonder answered him. 
 ***** You could have heard 
 The heating of yonr pulses while he spoke. 
 
 The traits and acquirements, whicli made Mr. Hill renowned as 
 a lawvcr and an orator fittwl him for ereatness in the arts of o-ov- 
 ci-nment. In these, after political engagements and official station 
 brought his mind to bear upon them, he soon bet-imc deeply versed, 
 and took rank with the foremost statesmen of his day. The ques- 
 tion "how can men be best governed?" was M'ith him a subject of 
 profound thought and philosophic research. He rightlv h)oked 
 upon it as a problem whose perfect solution the great minds of the 
 world on memorable trials had failed to work out. The records 
 <)f history, which he widely and usefully explored, instructed him 
 that philosophy, with all its achievements in the realms of political 
 science, had not been able to impart perfection or permanency to 
 any civil fabric yet built, and that even the testimonies to its mighti- 
 est triumphs Mere chiefly chronicled in the dismantled wrecks of 
 the institutions it founded. He had fully learned the great lesson 
 taught by ages of experience, that human infirmities will always 
 inqiress their images on political as well as other human establish- 
 ments, and that the Utopia of fiction could never exist in fact. 
 
 The Constitution of the American Union, to which his best 
 thought was long and profitably given, he considered the nearest 
 approac^h to perfection in governmental structure human effort had 
 
ADDBESS OF MR. WELLBORN, OF TEXAS. 79 
 
 yet attained. Under the metliods, however, whieli e\'en this in- 
 strument provided, lie Mas prepared to sec measures eousummated 
 which liis judgment condemned as errors and told Iiim were fraught 
 with disaster and woe. Kniergeneies of this kind, tlie crucial tests 
 of character, did not confound his faculties, but rather stimulated 
 them to the most reliable, if not highest exertions of statesmanshij), 
 namely, to see when a thing was inevitable, and, accepting it as such 
 to make the best of the situation, however bad it might he. He 
 lost no time, therefore, in bewailing accomplished facts, but when 
 proposed measures against which he warred became irre\-ersihle 
 policies, his quick, comprehensive j)erception took in the whole sit- 
 uation, and he at once applied himself not to a continuance of vain 
 resistance but the more sensible work of so controlling these poli- 
 cies as to avert, as far as possible, the ruin they threatened, and 
 bring out of them the best attainable results. This quality of states- 
 manship, which, on close analysis, will be found to be nothing 
 more nor less than the power of judicious selection between evils, 
 IMr. Hill notably exhibited in his political course prior to and 
 during the late war. 
 
 From 1855 up to the passage of the declaratory resolution by 
 the convention of Georgia, January 18, 1861, he combatted the 
 disunion sentiment with all the force and earnestness of his nature. 
 Th.e motives which influenced him were his attachment to the Union 
 under the Constitution and his desire to avert the calamities he 
 l)rofoundly believed war would bring upon the South. 
 
 For years he did all man could do to stay the swelling tide of 
 popular sentiment drifting his State and section, as he lirndy be- 
 lieved, into a night of storm and tempest whose starless gloom 
 would prove inteuser than Memphian darkness. His efforts were 
 ineffectual. The declaratory resolution liefore referred to, against 
 which he voted, fixed and determined Georgia's policy. 
 
 The die was cast. Then it was, under a high sense of (Uity to 
 his State, he accepted as inevitable what he had struggled to pre- 
 vent, and recorded his vote in favor of the ordinance, l)elieving this 
 to be the initial and an important step to the unification of his 
 people in the course they had determined against his judgment to 
 adopt. Of the conspicuous part he bore during the convulsive 
 
80 LIFE AXD < HARACrEi; OF HFXJ.IiJrX II. HILT.. 
 
 throes tliat oiisiiwl 1 .shall not speak further tiiaii tu say tiiat all in- 
 vestigations and researches thns far made into tliat period of storm 
 and gloom have but served to eonfirni and draw ont in holder lines 
 as his shining characteristics an intellect e(jual to every eniergeucy 
 in which he wa.s placed, a fidelity to conviction nothing could 
 swerve, a resolution difficulties conld not unsettle, a courage dangers 
 could not appall, and a fortitude whose endurance no adversities 
 could exhaust. This chapter of manly virtues will ever Ije held in 
 warm remembrance liy his associates iu misfortune and defeat, and 
 can but l>e read with respectful attention even by those who condemn 
 the cause in which these virtues were displayed. 
 
 Mr. Hill's abilities as a lawyer, an orator, and statesman were 
 subjected while he was in public life to the guidance of one grand 
 sentiment : " The noblest motive is the public good." 
 
 He loved his country with an intensity and ardor oiilv h^ttv and 
 generous natures can know, (tood government he considered the 
 highest boon that could be bestowed on a people. For this he 
 .sought and studied long and diligently. The rcsidt of this search 
 and study was one of the profoundest and most valued convictions 
 of his life, namely, that there was no other form of government nor 
 had there ever been one comparable to the Union under the Con- 
 stitution. Hear him as he tells to a li.steuing Senate, in .statelv 
 ])hra.se, the excellency of this (Toveriuuent : 
 
 It is the noblest government, the greatest goveniuieiit that human wis- 
 lioni ever devised, and it couhl not have been framed hy human wisdom alone. 
 The human intellect never existed in this world that conld from its own evo- 
 lutions have wrought out such a thing as this Cnn.stitution of the United 
 .States. • ' « It isagovernment such as Romau neverdreamedof, such a.s 
 Grecian never conceived, and such as European never had the ]iower to evolve. 
 When the American people, either for the purpose of dismembering the States 
 or of destroying them, shall destroy this unparalleled government, this gov- 
 ernment without a model, this government without a prototype, they will 
 have destrojed a government which seems to have been wisely adapted to 
 the peculiar condition of the time and to all their future wants, and they 
 will launch out on a sea of uncertainty the result of which no man can fore- 
 cast. 
 
 Hear him again, as he declares to a vast multitude at his own 
 home, in rapid, beautiful utterance, his admiration for the Ameri- 
 can svstem of srovernment : 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. iVELLliOUX, Of TEXAS. 81 
 
 My countrymen, have you ever studied this wondiMt'ul American system of 
 free goverumeut '. Have you compared it with former systems and noted how 
 our fathers sought to avoid their defects? Let me commend this study to 
 every American citizen to-day. To him who loves liberty it is more enchant- 
 ing than romance, more hewitchitig than love, and more elevating than any 
 other science. Our fathers adopted this plan with improvements in the de- 
 tails which cannot be found in any other system. With what a noble im- 
 pulse of patriotism they came together from different States and joiued their 
 counsels to perfect this system, thenceforward to be known ;i« the "Ameri- 
 can system of free constitutional government." The .snows that fall on 
 Mouut Washington are not purer than the motives which begot it. The fresh 
 dew-laden zephyrs from the orange groves of the South are not sweeter than 
 the hopes its advent inspired. The flight of our own .symbolic eagle, though 
 he blow his breath on the suu, cannot be higher than its expected destiny. 
 
 ^Ir. Speaker, the voice of p:itrioti.--ni calLs to iis to-day from tlie 
 grave oi' the great Georgian. In silence more eloquent than 
 .stirring language it poinLs ii.s to the " American .system of free con- 
 stitutional government " as the "noblest government, the greatest 
 goveruiueut that human wi.stlom ever devised." It impresses 
 upon us that thi.s .system is the one founded by Washington and 
 otlier patriots of the Revolution; that it is hallowed by sacred 
 memories and freighted with precious hopes; that though the rigiit- 
 ful inheritance of one people, humanity everywhere has an interest 
 in its preservation; that, if in an evil hour it should perish, its 
 ruins would entomb forever the in.stitutions of freedom and ffive a 
 new birth to the establishments of despotism. 
 
 Bv all tiicse high considerations it pleads for tiie perpetuation of 
 this incomparable system of government, "this government with- 
 out a model, this government without a prototype," and points 
 out the path of public duty by urging as the measure of jniblic 
 worth "that he shall be the greatest patriot, the truest patriot, the 
 noblest patriot, who shall do most to repair the wrongs of the jtast 
 and promote the glories of the future." 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the touching scenes and incidents of Mr. Hii.i.'s 
 last sickness were a fitting close to the illustrious labors of his 
 active life. The intellect, the resolution, tlie courage, the fortitude 
 whii-h had sustained him in the latter did not desert him in the 
 former. But, added to these, \\as a fuller rtiliance than ever on 
 that uusecn arm which alone can guide through the dark valley 
 and shadow of death. So I'om posed ly did lie ((iiitcnijjlate his near 
 C H 
 
82 LIFE AND CBARACTEB OF BEXJAMIX B. HILL. 
 
 dissi)liition that he was ableto say, "But for the good Iliad hoped 
 to do my family aud country, I should regard the announcement 
 'I must die' as joyful tidings." 
 
 Above all, how eutranciug the vision it was granted iiini to see 
 iust before death took him away, and which he pictured so aptly 
 in the last two words he ever spoke, " Almost home!" Home! 
 A magic word. The English language has no brighter, the En- 
 glish tongue can speak no sweeter. It names the best s2>ot on earth, 
 the radiant center of })ure sentiments and heaven-approved attach- 
 ments. Thitherward the wanderer iu distant lands ever turns his 
 eye in bright expectancy ; and when he has l)ecn long aud far away 
 aud at last uoars the loved place, and familiar objects begin to glad- 
 den his eye, the tired limbs may almost give out, but the hope- 
 buoyed spirit exclaims, " Abnost home!" 
 
 The end was at hand. The wanderings of time were over. 
 Eternity's glories Merc breaking ai-ound. The dying Senator 
 "spoke out in full and even triumphant acceut," "Almost home!" 
 The ])ulse throbbed its last beat, and the spirit flew to its Cum] and 
 immortal destiny. 
 
 Address of Mr. Kasson, of Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: I deeply regret that, contrary to well-ordered 
 custom, I am obliged to speak to-day touching the honored dead 
 without the preparation which properly characterizes such an oi'ca- 
 sion. I learn to-day that those of my colleagues on this side of the 
 House who, from old association with ]\Ir. Hill, late Senator, were 
 best fitted to speak of his character aud to make just appreciation of 
 those qualities which attracted the atteutiou of the ^vhole country, 
 were by illness and other special cause prevented from taking part 
 in the ceremouics of this day. 
 
 Uuwilliug that this side of the House, which had also been a wit- 
 ness of the distinguished ability of Senator Hill while he was a 
 member of this body, should be unheard ou this occasion, I vent- 
 ure to trespass on the kindness of my colleagues while I say ex- 
 temporaneously a few words upon his character and his services. 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. EASSON, OF IOWA. 83 
 
 We from the States of tlic North had only tliat opj)ortuiuty to 
 become aequaiutecl with Mr. Hill \vlii(-h was ottered by his com- 
 paratively brief pnl)lic career upon tiiis Hoor. Some of us, includ- 
 ing myself, were on the floor at the time of that great debate to 
 which so frequent reference has been made by my colleagues upon 
 the other side. Few men had a higher ai)preciation of the intel- 
 lectual qualities developed by Mr. Hill iu that discussion than 
 myself. My sympathy with the views which he combated could 
 not blind me to his power in debate. 
 
 I am obliged to speak of his qualities chiefly from my meniorv 
 of that session, and esj^ecially of tliat occasion. There were in him 
 certain traits of character which have led me to compare him with 
 Oliver Cromwell among persons of English history, and with but 
 few known to American history. He combined great self-poise 
 and apparent consciousness of power with a certain solid, adaman- 
 tine honesty of purpose which gave to the movements of his in- 
 tellect unusual, extraordinary strength. Earnest in countenance, 
 he expressed iu that respect only the earnestness of his nature. 
 He moved with solidity in the development of his intellectual 
 forces. He could not be cast oiF his balance by any light attack 
 whatever. He kept the main objection point always in view. His 
 mind, like Cromwell's, was impregnated with a sense of the obliga- 
 tions of religion. No man can be a great po\\ er in a Christian 
 country without this inward sense of responsibility to a greater 
 Power, a Power greater, higher than the people, and to whom the 
 people themselves owe allegiance and acknowledge responsibility. 
 It is the strong rock in human character to which, above all other 
 qualities, the people themselves attach their confidence. 
 
 While I recognize these great controling elements of the human 
 mind in him, I did not fail to see that he, like most of us, was still 
 animated chiefly by his great sense of responsibility to that part of 
 the country mIucIi he represented. I recognized that same hon- 
 esty of character when he determined that the sentiments of those 
 who elected him should be also fairly manifested on this floor, and 
 should be maintained b}' all the force of debate. 
 
 And while from our point of view we often thought we dis- 
 covered in him a strength of prejudice which was iiieradi<'able, we 
 
84 LIFE AXD CBAKACTER OF BEXJAMIX H. HILL. 
 
 also were obliged to remember that our opponents, bearing the same 
 relations to ns as we to him, would find for the same reason, tor 
 identically the same cause, ground to believe that our views also 
 were intlueiiced or cuntnilletl by prejudice of section and of associ- 
 ation. 
 
 Sir, I i-annot speak of Mr. Hill's character prior to his entrance 
 into tiie Forty-fourth Congress. We knew him to be a man of 
 power. We in the North rejoiced when wo heard that iiis voice was 
 lifted to save us from the disasters that tbllowod the opening era of 
 secession. ^\'c lUdurned when we found that n;itura]ls, if not log;- 
 ically — for we a])preciated that it was natural — lie cast in his lot 
 with his own State for disunion and separate government. But we 
 rejoiced again wlien at tiie close of that great struggle, as shown by 
 the gentleman from Georgia wli< > first spoke to-day [Mr. ITanuuond], 
 he again presented himself in the front of that coliunu which sought 
 to return to the Union with honesty of purpose, with perfect in- 
 tegrity of heart, and with an earnest desire to do their duty to the 
 whole country as faithfully as they had done it to their own sec- 
 tion. I prefer to reniend)er Mr. Hii^i, from such utterances in that 
 speech to which reference has been made as this: 
 
 We had well hoped that the country had suffered loug enough from feuds, 
 from strife, and from intlamed passions: and we came hei-e, sir, with the patri- 
 otic ]>urpose to rememVier nothing but the country and the whole country, 
 and, turning our Viacks on the horrors of the past, to look with all earnestnes.s 
 to find glories for the futnre. 
 
 When a man like Mr. Hili, returns to what we mav fairlv call 
 iiis first love and his first devotion, it means nun'cthan tiic flipjnuit 
 I'emark of one who desires to tiu'n a phrase in oratory. He was 
 of that rugged honesty of nature that, whether or not wiiolly justi- 
 fied by an impartial judgment in the course he took upon any ques- 
 tion, he never failed to impress his audience with the certainty and 
 honesty of his conviction and of the opinion he professed to en- 
 tertain. I mourn when such a man passes from the midst of us. 
 I regret deeply that the Senate will no longer hear his voice nor 
 have the benefit of his sound judgment. 
 
 Sir, among the many sorrows which death inflicts upon tiie human 
 brea,st it carries with it one blessing. It is tiic dis|)osition wliich 
 then comes to us all to give tocharity luid justice ihcir due doiiiiniou 
 
ADDRESS OF MIt. HOOKER, OF MISSISSII'PI. 85 
 
 over intellect and heart as we stand by the grave of the dead. 
 '\\''ould to God that while all are alive we could equally feel and 
 exercise those qualities in regard to our associates, whether oppo- 
 nents or friends. 
 
 I take to myself, I think we can all take to ourselves, from the 
 comments made upon such a character a.s Jlr. Hill's, the thought 
 how much more profitably, liow much more agreeably, more pa- 
 trioticallv our duties on this floor would be discharged if we could 
 carry from his grave to our work here the sentiments with which 
 we all find ourselves inspired as we look into the face of the dead. 
 No higher tribute to the character wliich we now commemorate 
 could be given than that each of us should attempt to exercise in 
 all our relations those virtues which we here celebrate as the en- 
 nobling qualities of him to whose memory we this day render the 
 final honors. 
 
 Address of Mr. HoOKER, of Mississippi. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : Having been invited by my friend from Georgia 
 [Mr. Hammond], who sits beside me, to say something on this 
 occasion, I have ielt it my duty to accept that invitation, because 
 of the relations which have existed between the people of my own 
 State and the great State of Georgia, to whose distinguished Sena- 
 tor we have assembled here to-day to pay the last solemn obse- 
 quies; for wiiile the daughter has somewhat outgrown the mother 
 in many respects, slie has not ceased to feel filial affection for that 
 great countrv which supplied so many of her early citizens. As 
 it is not mv custom to write speeches on any occasion, I am con- 
 strained to speak to-day, so far as affection for the dead is con- 
 cerned, rather from the lieart tlian from the head. 
 
 With reference to the private life of the great statesman whose 
 death we mourn, I can say but little except what I gather from 
 the friends who lived closer to him than it was my fortune to do. 
 But in regard to his public character, and the two aspects in whidi 
 it presents itself to the world at large, I will say a few words. 
 
 Bexjamix H. Hill underwent as a part of his education the 
 
86 tIFE AND CHARACTER OF BEXJAMiy H. BILL. 
 
 severe training of a lawyer. It was in tliis aspect that he first 
 presented himself to the people of his own State. His niinil was 
 formed by that vigorous discipline which belongs to the profession 
 of the law. It made him logical. He is said to have excelled 
 especially in that great power of the lawyer, the statement of his 
 case. This he made so simply, so briefly, so lucidly, that the most 
 unintelligent court must seize the salient facts of the case. It wa.s 
 in his capacity as a lawyer that Mr. Hill was first known to the 
 people of his own State for his distinguished ability as a reasoner 
 and an orator. I have heard from a friend of his an incident of 
 his earlv life, when he was employed to defend a man charged 
 with murder. That defense was assumed by him in the courts, 
 and he fiiiled. 
 
 At that time in the State of (icorgia it was within the jwwer of 
 the defen(huit in a case of this kind to appeal to the senate of the 
 State. Mr. Hili- made that appeal, not so much in behalf of the 
 defendant himself as of the aged and widowed mother, from whose 
 heart he wished to avert the blow which would flill upon the head 
 of her sou. He went into the State senate with his case, with a 
 widowed mother leaning on his arm. 
 
 This gentleman describes the scene as he witnessed it — one in 
 which Mr. HiLL looked, fur the first time in his life, pallid with 
 excitement, because of the great responsibility which rested upon 
 him; for in all his advocacy at the bar he was impressed with the 
 sentiment of the great responsibility i-esting upon the advocate and 
 the intimate relation between the advocate and his client, a senti- 
 ment which has been beautifully, though perhaps somewhat too 
 strongly, expressed b^' one of the greatest of English lawyers and 
 English premiers, Lord Brougham, when he declared that it is the 
 duty of a lawyer to stand by the interest of his client even to the 
 upturning of the government. Mr. HiLL walked into that senate 
 chamber and made his appeal to the senate on the ground of the 
 insanity of the man who had committed the alleged murder. He 
 spoke for hours, and he obtained from the senate a verdict which 
 relieved the widowed mother and spared the life of the son. 
 
 In all his relations as a lawyer Mr. Hill achieved distinction 
 because he was inspired with fidelity to the great duties which 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. HOOKER, OF MISSISSIPPI. 87 
 
 devolved upon liim. But liis great intellect was not destined to 
 be confined in its exercise to the bar, though it was the shaping 
 and the fashioning of that intellect by close attention to his profes- 
 sion that prepared him for a new and different arena. I had the 
 pleasure of first meeting him here as we entered together the Forty- 
 fourth Congress. He leaped into this grand arena of debate like 
 Minerva from the bi-ain of Jove, armed cap-a-pie for any contest 
 that might occur. He was prepared to take rank among the first 
 in this hall of debate of the American Commons. 
 
 I remember especially an occasion a short time after the con- 
 vening of the Forty-fourth Congress Avhen he spoke here almost 
 from the position in which I now stand. The magnanimous, gen- 
 erous-hearted Representative from Pennsjdvania [Mr. Randall], 
 then the leader of this side of the House, had introduced his bill 
 for universal amnesty, thinking that the time had-comewhen there 
 should be a restoration of the Union, not in name and word, but 
 in deed and in truth ; that anniesty should be extended to every 
 citizen, from the humblest subaltern animated by a sense of duty to 
 the lofty-plumed chief who led the Confederate forces ; that all the 
 memories of the Avar should be blotted from the hearts and the 
 minds of the entire people. 
 
 In this spirit the gentleman from Pennsylvania introduced that 
 resolution upon which ]\Ir. HiLi^s voice was first heard in this 
 Hall, as has been so beautifully described by my friend from Vir- 
 ginia [Mr. Tucker]. He encountered on that occasion an orator on 
 the other side of the Chamber who had been for years the leader 
 of his party, who had at one time occupied the seat which you now 
 occupy, who, as a debater, as a stater of facts as a parliamentary 
 tactician, had probably no equal at that time on either side of this 
 Hall. 
 
 It was a coufiict, as tiie geutleniau Ironi Virginia [Mr. Tucker] 
 has well remarked, of giauts, which took us back to the older days 
 in these halls, when Hayne and Webster and Calhoun and Clay 
 and other orators of the past rendered illustrious the days in which 
 tliev lived. As has been well said, it was a battle of the giants, 
 and both giants fought with Damascus-like blades. 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, it was a somewhat unequal contest, for he'who 
 
88 LIL'E ASD CUARACTEU OF liEXJ.iillN U. HILL. 
 
 rcprescntwl one side of the question was the victor and wore the 
 laurel wrcatii wiiieli crowns tlie victor's brow, wliile tlic otlier rep- 
 resented what lias become Ivuown in liistorvas the " lost cause," and 
 uore tile nielaiiclioly cvpress, wliicii is the einbleni ofdcfeat and 
 deatii. Therefore I say it was a somewliat unenual contest; but 
 those of us for whom lie s])(il<e, and spoke with so nuu'li clearness, 
 so much precision, so nnicli wisdom, so much patriotism, felt that 
 we could ajipeal to the maguaniniily of his great o})ponent ; great 
 he was and still is — we felt that we coukl appeal to the magna- 
 nimity of his great opponent in that contest that Mr. Hill had 
 stated liis side of the (|uestion as no other man could have stated it 
 in this Hall. 
 
 During the time lie was here as our colleague we all remember 
 him with the tendcrest affection and esteem. We venerate his great 
 abililN . We dc])l(irc his loss to the State who called him son, and 
 to the eounti'X' w lio honored him for his patriotism and fidelity. 
 
 It was not long, Mv. Speaker, before the peo|)le of his Stat(>, in 
 1<S77, called on him to occupy a higher position. I remember his 
 being seated in that jiortion of the Hall from which he had de- 
 livered his powerfid and eloquent speech a few minutes before, and 
 receiving a telegram conveying to him the intelligence that the State 
 of Georgia had transferred him to the other end of the Capitol. 
 
 He went there, Mr. Speaker, as he came here, and at once took 
 liis rank in that graver, more dignified body, that body of loftier 
 debate, took his seat there when that Chamber was filletl with men 
 of the highest intellect in this country, when the gigantic intellectual 
 form of Thurman sat on one side and on the other the equally gi- 
 gantic intellectual form of Conkling. Bexjamin H. Hill took 
 his place in the Senate of the United States, as he had done in this 
 Hall, as the peer and equal of any man there. He had achieved 
 great triumph in every position of life, as lawyer, as Representative, 
 as Senator. He had strewetl along the pathway of that life mem- 
 orable acts and wondrous intellectual efforts, "as the giant oak of the 
 forest sheds its foliage in a kindly largess to the soil it grows on." 
 He has passed from us to another scene of action. He has passed 
 from us to that " home" to which he looked so fondly. 
 
 Whether speaking to his people in the State of Georgia, or ad- 
 
ADDRESS OF MB. HOOKER, OF MISSISSIPFT. 89 
 
 dressing the Representatives in this Hall ontiie most delicate ques- 
 tions, or debating in the Senate Chamber of the United States, 
 there never fell from his lips any other words tliaii words of wis- 
 dom and patriotism. His were — 
 
 "Not such words as Hash 
 From the tierce demagogue's uiithiukiiig rago 
 To madden for a moment and expire — 
 Nor such as the rapt orator imbues 
 With warmth of facile sympathy, and molds 
 To mirrors radiant with fiiir images, 
 To grace the nobh» fervor of an hour : 
 But words which bear the spirits of great deeds 
 Wiug'd for tlie future; which the dying brcatli 
 Of Freedon)'s martyr shapes as it exhales, 
 And to the most eiuluring forms of earth 
 Commits — to linger in the craggy shade 
 Of the huge valley, 'neath the eagle's home, 
 Or in the sea-cave where the tempest sleeps, 
 Till some heroic leader bid them wake 
 To thrill the world with echoes." 
 
 Wlicrever he spoke and wliatcver he said, all was for his coun- 
 try's good. He rose superior to all partisanship because he was a 
 statesman, looking always to the best interests of his people. 
 
 It has been said when every other passion which sways the 
 human heart has been Inirned to asiies on its altar, ambition still 
 lives and rules and controls. But he had lived even until this 
 last passion had died out, and tlie last hours of his life touched 
 scenes in his mortal illness wlieu he was ministered to bv iiis lov- 
 ing wife and equally loving daughter, which enabled him to 
 throw aside every passion and every emotion which ndc tiic hu- 
 man heart, and look forward with tiiat feeling of hope which Ije- 
 longs to the pure Christian man. 
 
 It was at tliis time that one of liis l)rother members of the bar 
 (^[r. Jolin W. Clampitt) of a distant State, the State of my friend 
 from Illinois [Mr. Springer], sent him that beautiful pi>em de- 
 scribing the very condition of mind in which Mr. IIii.L then was. 
 It reached him only a few davs before his deatii. That gentle- 
 man is now a member of the l)ar of this city. I will read a few 
 stanzas from tliat pathetic poem addressed to Senator B. H. Hill, 
 and beginning with — 
 
90 LIFE ASD cnAlidCTKlt OF BEyjAillX II. UlLL. 
 
 I am weary of my burden 
 Ami fain would rest. 
 
 Every leaf upon its sliore lines 
 
 Is a gem ; 
 Not a withered one is droopin<;, 
 While the hand of love is looping 
 And into garlands grouping 
 
 All of them. 
 
 In that world there is no sorrow, 
 
 Not a tear ; 
 Never comes the broken-hearted, 
 From whose eager life departed 
 The hopes that once had started 
 
 Fonil and de.ir. 
 
 Not a storm-cloud ever gathers 
 
 On the air ; 
 Only summer clouds are drifting, 
 And summer breezes sifting. 
 And sweetest perfume lifting 
 
 From gardens fair. 
 
 Only music soft and melting 
 
 Soothes the soul ; 
 And its billows mild and wooing, 
 With a gentle hand undoing 
 All the cares that wei'e bestrewing 
 
 Lead me to that land of beauty. 
 
 So I may abide ; 
 Lead me where the llowers are blooming, 
 AVhere the music mild is wooing, 
 Where the hand of love is moving 
 
 On every tide. 
 
 Like a little child I'll follow 
 
 Swift after thee ; 
 To the land of never weeiiiug, 
 Where my father's love is keeping 
 Mortal souls who failed in reaping 
 
 Earthly ecstasy. 
 
 I will take my burden for a pillow 
 
 And lie down to rest ; 
 God's love shall dwell beside me. 
 And no clouds shall ever hide me 
 From the loving ones that guide mo 
 
 To the portals of tlio blest. 
 
ADDRESS OF ilB. COX, OF XEJV YORK. 91 
 
 Tliesc lines fitly and appropriately describe tlie closing scenes of 
 that memorable life, wliich had been so distiniruislied in the "Tcat 
 events of this country. It may be said of him, Mr. Speaker, as 
 was said by the great ^larshall of his friend ]\Icnafee,'\vhen he 
 was describing him after death : 
 
 His escutchcou is broad, spotless, briglit, and beautiful as Bayard's ori- 
 llaiumc adorned with the lilies of Franco. 
 
 Senator ITii.l died, Mr. Speaker, in the meridian of his life, of 
 that singnlar, fatal, and insidious disease that up to this time has 
 dene<l the eye of the scientist to determine how it originates or 
 how it may be relieved. lie passed away before he had attained 
 that lofty eminence that the future had evidently in store for him. 
 But in that dying hour, looking back over the great events in the 
 history of his country in which he had borne so prominent a part, 
 he might well have been justified if at its conclusion the power of 
 speech had been restored to him, in saying in the language of the 
 great I^atin poet as he coutemplate"d his mighty epic : 
 
 JanKiue opus excgi, (juod uec .Jovis ira, nee ignis, nee vetustaui ferruui 
 poterit delere. 
 
 Address of Mr. Cox, of New York. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: When a great Frencii leader of opinion died the 
 other day, it was queried whether French institutions would sur- 
 vive. " The republic is Leon Gambetta," was the sententious 
 phrase. Wherever the signs of sorrow were displayed over the 
 death of the great Frenchman, from San Francisco to Syria, the 
 powerful tribune of the people, the vehement orator, the energetic 
 patriot was mourned a.s if France herself were lost. The very floral 
 offerings were shaped into the tricolor of France. Not so in other 
 lands. Disraeli dies, and though his party goes on, sadly lacking 
 his genius, the English Government in form and structure receives 
 no detriment. I saw nobles of ancient lineage and peasants of the 
 country he had so long represented follow his remains to its sepul- 
 cher. All that was mortal of the dead Hebrew and brilliant 
 
92 LIFE AXO CIIAliAiTEU OF BEXJAMIX U. UlLL. 
 
 minister recciverl the hist rites of the established chinvh, but tlie 
 English constitution and English society received no shock. 
 
 So, too, in these cisatlantic republican coninionwealths — states- 
 men and Presidents come and go like rainbows, but the state sur- 
 vives. It is more permanent because of the monumental service 
 of the departed statesman it has nourished. 
 
 The eloquent Georgian and Senator whom we honor to-day 
 rounded an active life of rarest mold. No glamour of tlie sol- 
 dier was his. He was the peerless citizen who led men by voice 
 and thought in perilous times, through troubles and tyrannies, 
 with a foresight and wisdom all too rare in this land of mercenary 
 grasping and unrelaxing excitement. He dies ; but his State and 
 the nation grow better by the empha.sis of his life and the virtue 
 of its lessons. 
 
 It wa.s my privilege to know Senator Hill, even before he be- 
 came a member here. It is because of delightful, almost intimate 
 friendship, that his friends have assigned to me a j)art in these sad 
 obsequies. 
 
 The dates and events, the links connecting such details, which 
 make the chain of his personal history and serve to illustrate the 
 individual feeling and life, the cliaractor of the man — these others 
 have touched with magnetic, loving hand. 
 
 This chain was fashioned as all character is by surrounding cir- 
 cumstances. Those who knew him in his early days love to trace 
 the main elements of his character to his pai'entage. His father 
 was of slender education, but of rolnist virtue. He ^vas remark- 
 able for his invincible will and force. His mother was of an 
 earne.st, gentle nature, full of reflective and religious (pialities. 
 These made up the rudiments of that character which enaljled him 
 to overcome obstacles by endurance and palliate them by persua- 
 sion. The sturdy oak was garlanded witii tcnderest flowers. 
 Ijike a Grecian or Doric fane, to whiili the gciillciiiMu from \'ir- 
 ginia [Mr. Tucker] likened it, his character coniliincd beauty with 
 strength. 
 
 The old farm-house and the red hills where he passed the scenes 
 of his boyhood modified these inborn elements of his nature, and 
 gave fresh vigor to his healthful life and added grace to his gen- 
 tlenesss. 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. COX, OF XETV YORK. 93 
 
 In liis cullege experience the development and discipline of his 
 mind was prodigious. His shyness and awkwardness, Ijorn of the 
 country, soon gave way before his energy and ambition. From 
 tiio rustic boy, in his long jeans coat and scant trousers, he at once 
 liecame a thoughtful student. His jiabit of abstraction began 
 thus early. Whether in tiie Demostheniau Society, or as its anni- 
 versarian orator, or delivering the valetlictory of his cla.ss, he im- 
 ])rcssed those who listened with his unequaleil power of debate 
 and the rare felicity of his eloquence. One index of the gentle 
 side of his character may be noted. His theme at the junior com- 
 mencement was the " Life, Love, and Madness of Torquato 
 Tasso,"'into which he threw all his mother's poetic sensibilitv 
 with his scholarly warmth. 
 
 Soon the scholar ripened into the advocate. Here was his 
 field. He had a legal mind. Ho drove the logic of the law 
 bravely through every obstacle of fanc^- and fact. His fluencv of 
 speech and fertility of expedient, together with his power of appli- 
 catiim and study, g-ave him a forensic power which Lord Coke 
 said a good lawyer should have for the "occasion sudden;" a 
 power which partial friends have compared with that of Erskiue. 
 As a lawyer few men, even in our largest cities. ha\-e had such 
 success. Although diverted again and again from his jealous 
 mistress, the law, to canva.<s for Congress, legislature, elector, and 
 governor, he was still employed in all the leading cases of the 
 State. It is estimated — if such estimates may be quoted here and 
 now — that he had made a million dollars, as Tees, by the time he 
 was fifty. He was as lavish in the expenditure and as im]irovi- 
 deut in the investment of his earnings as he was indefatiuabii' 
 with head and voice in their accumulation. 
 
 There is another phase of his life which gave its impress to the 
 scholar, the citizen, the orator, the advocate, the statesman, and 
 the man. It is the sectional or Southern aspect of his life. 
 Without this phase he would not have made the mark which he 
 so indelibly did upon his State. He had no act of the dema- 
 gogue, no party tactics at command, no storied lore racy of the 
 soil such as made the " Georgia Scenes" so whimsical and humor- 
 ous, and little or no conversational loquacity ; but he hail the re- 
 serve which carries the battle, and thus armed he was dauntless. 
 
94 LIFE AXD CHAEACTEn OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 Yet there seems to be an iiuevemieti.s aud incousisteucy iu his 
 career and character. This iiue\-enness may liave been tlie result 
 of the vicissitudes of the eventful times when the best of men were 
 distracted as to duty. Inconsistency ? Gladstone, the young 
 Tory, becomes the venerable Ijiberal, and Pahuerstou laughed at 
 the vanity of consistency. 
 
 Call it what you will, State pride or local aifection, and sa}- it 
 is irreconcilable with a larger love of country, yet is it not tlie 
 same patriotic impulse which made Tell love the mountains of 
 Switzerland, and Webster the rock-ljouud shores of New Eng- 
 land ? Besides, is it necessary to reconcile the love one bears the 
 mother with that one bears tiiewife? Wlii'u one is true to his 
 bridal troth is he less true to tiie mother who l)()re him ? 
 
 It was this State pride which led the youth to prefer his own 
 State University at Athens for his education rather than follow 
 the advice of his teacher, \\\\o was a graduate of Yale. It was 
 the same sentiment which colored his after-life and gave glow and 
 glory to his oratory. Even Mhile protesting against secession 
 ordinances on the hustings aud in convention he followed with no 
 laggard step his State into revolt against the Federal domination. 
 When the question came home to him whether he would liavc the 
 unity of his Georgian people or the unity of all the States, he 
 chose, and honestly chose, the unity of his home. 
 
 Herein lies that seeming unevenness and inconsistencv whicli 
 some have observed in his character. I sliall rather call it tlie 
 tough fiber of his native robust being, its nature gnarled by soil 
 and tempest, but none the less beautiful because it had the hard 
 intertwisted knot of local devotion. 
 
 True, he contended for "the Union, the Constitution, and the en- 
 forcement of the laws." He left his lawver's desk and soup-ht leg- 
 islative honors, to champion constitutional Federal unity. It was 
 because he thought the mother was the loving friend of his bride. 
 
 The first test of the young statesman, thirty years ago, Mas in 
 the contest for the compromise of 1850. He desired to signalize 
 the end of slavery agitation, which he foresaw would end in civil 
 war and Southern disaster. Hence his entrance upon political life 
 iu 1851 as a Union man. 
 
ADDSESS OF MH. COX, OF yETl' TOUK. 95 
 
 Tlirouglioiit his .subsequeut life, up tu the signing of the seces- 
 .sion orilinancc, he was, in its liest sense, an ardent Federalist. He 
 was of such moderate views and so opposed to the iiltraists of his 
 State that ho traversetl Georgia proclaiiuiug fealty to the Union. 
 He sounded the tocsin of revolt against the leaders of revolution. 
 Never Avas a crisis met so courageously. At a time when Yancey's 
 sentences thrilled the South, and when even Ho^vell Cobb was the 
 coadjutor of Senator Iverson, the silver voice of Be.\.ja:mix H. 
 Hill, joining that of Alexander H. Stephens, was a trumjiet, not 
 of sedition, but of loyalty to the Union. 
 
 In his speeches, full of the fervor of tiiat wild day, and in a 
 minority, he was to Southern Unionism what Gambetta was to dis- 
 tracted France. Both M-ere too late to save, lint both lived to re- 
 build and restore. 
 
 It is not for me to inquire wliy tiie late Senator gave his voice 
 only for secession and not his arm. It was not from lack of cour- 
 age, physical, mental, or moral ; but ho was doubtless continually 
 shadowed by his own prophecy. "Take care," he said, "that in 
 endeavoring to carry slavery where nature's laws prohibit its en- 
 trance you do not lose the right to hold slaves at all ! " 
 
 The Senator had no love for the secrecies and ritual of Kno\\- 
 nothingism, and when that semi-religious and anti- American cru- 
 sade was preached it was condemned ijy him. But from his con- 
 servative habitude he defended the Fillmoi'e administration, and 
 in 1860 he became a Bell and Everett Union elector. Georgia 
 rang from side to side with his elegant and urgent phillipics against 
 radicalism North and South and his fervent patriotism for the Union 
 of our tathei's. 
 
 It is impossible to analyze a life so full of incident or a mind so 
 well disciplined and an oratory so alert and brilliant, without draw- 
 ing upon the language of higii encomium. 
 
 All the virtues and genius as well as faults of the man and Sen- 
 ator center around the love he bore to his own State of Georgia. 
 
 He was a native of Georgia, and had he lived till now would 
 have been three-score years of age. He was born in the center of 
 "old 
 
96 LIFE AXI) CBAIiACTEli OF BENJAMIX H. BILL. 
 
 tlie C'liattahooclice." To horrow the language of a friend in tlie 
 (lavs of inv first scrviee lierc, Jiulye James Jackson: 
 
 » t 7 
 
 He was all a (leoigiaii. Tlio robust jiliysiijiic of the man sprang from the 
 soil of our beloved State, and the giant intellect which so distinjiiiished him 
 was equally Georgian. If honey was njion liis lips, the Georgia bee gathere<I 
 it from Georgia flowers. If the sih er ring of his eloquence touched all hearts, 
 the silvt^r was dug out of tlie red old hills we love so mnch. 
 
 Georgia, geologically and [licturesijuely, vmder and above the 
 genial soil, ha.s natural advantages and beauties wiiich along with 
 her liberal institutions early attracted such adventm-ous minds as 
 the Hebrew Mende/, the Engli.sh .soldier Oglctliorpe, and the 
 Metliodi.st Wesley. Even the mounds are yet pointeil out, in tlic 
 county where our Senator was born, into which De St)to deh-ed for 
 gold. Her mountains dip and curl in crested grandeur toward the 
 west, while her savanna.s add their greenery and wealth to her 
 shores. 
 
 General James Oglethorpe, who, as Burke said, had called a jiri>v- 
 ince into existence and lived to .see it an independent State, was 
 the epitome of Georgia history. Oglethorjie's life was so full of 
 achievement and variety that it is a romance. Pope eulogized, Dr. 
 Johnson admired, and Tiiompson celeliratcd iiim. He was not only 
 ready to defend his honor in tin' duel, but was the ])ris(incr's friend 
 and tlic founder of an "empire State." Sir Rol)ert Montgomery 
 called the new colony which tiie gallant general founded ''the mo.st 
 delightful country of the universe." Even the poet of the Seasons, 
 Thompson, in his "Liberty," sang of the .swarming {'oloni.sts who 
 sought the "gay colony of Georgia." He eulogized it as the calm 
 retreat of undeserved distress, the better home of those whom bigots 
 chased from foreign lands. It was not built on rapine, servitude, 
 and woe. The very histor\- and literature of England thus im- 
 bound with this colony is almost unknowu to the North. Other 
 States, it seems, attracted more literary attention. 
 
 It was this Georgia, the a.sylum and hope of man, and founded 
 in honor, religion, and bravery, tliat our Senator loved. Even 
 John Wesley's mother, when the high ciuu'ch Mi'tiiodist asked her 
 whether he should proceed to Cieorgia, said : "Had I twi'Uty sons 
 I .should rejoice if they were all .so emj>loyed." The very religion 
 
ADDHESS OF nil. co.y, OF yiiir kuik. 'J7 
 
 of Georgia liad in it a courage which chjcs uot belong to our time, 
 when the voyage across the Atlantic is robbed of most of its 
 terror. 
 
 In the center and heart of this historic State, and in a county 
 which bears the name of the bravest soldier that ever bore a banner 
 to victory — Jasper — and with the heroic and religious associations 
 of its founders, young Hn,L was born. At an early age he followed 
 his tlimily and its fortunes to tiie Alaljama border, near the ("luit- 
 tahoochee River. The tt)wn of La Grange, to wliicii they ri'iiioved, 
 is the county sent of Troup. It was then, and is yet, noted for its 
 love of education audits school facilities. There are many asso- 
 ciations in this county, and even connected with its very name, 
 which might well attune a young mind to thoughts of ambition in 
 tiie forum of law and politics. Giants were arrayed in Georgia in 
 those days, and tiicir clforts, especially about 1833, when force Ijiils 
 and nullification were rife, gave impassioned tone as well as high 
 temper to p(iliti<'al discussion. 
 
 Doubtless the mind of young Mim, took its hue from these sur- 
 roundings; but in a State the very name of whose counties betoken 
 a lofty division of sentiment — where Washington, Jackson, .Jeffer- 
 son, Franklin, and Madison speak of the Federal Constitution, and 
 Henry, Randolph, Troup, and Crawford speak of State sovereignty 
 and local liberty ; but where, above all, the names of Pulaski, De 
 Kalb, Morgan, and Carroll shine like primal virtues, all starry 
 with our Revolutionary radiance, it could not be otherwise than 
 that men of earnest thought should perceive a divide<l duty, and 
 that great controversial acumen and power should enter the arena 
 and inspire contentions oratory. 
 
 Doubtless Senator Hill was greatly influenced in his pursuits 
 and characteristics by such rare men and events as Georgia has 
 proilucetl. These names may not be as familiar to Xorthorn ears 
 now as in the days of Jackson and Calhoun, but they are still jw- 
 tential to start a spirit in Georgia, where State pride ha-s lost but 
 little of its prestige by the result of the civil war. Read the roster 
 of (Georgia's forum — the brilliant lights of her l)ench, bar, litera- 
 ture, and senate: Beall, Crawford, Berrien, Mcintosh, Clayton, Col- 
 fjuitt, Cobb, Tripp, Dawson, Forsythc, Lumpkin, Lamar, Jackson, 
 7 H 
 
98 LIFE AND CBARACTER OF BENJAMIN H. HILL. 
 
 Shorter, Reid, Warner, Johnson, Wikle, and Baldwin, not to speak 
 of men wlio yet survive, like her i)resent wonderful ehief magistrate, 
 and his contrast in stature and mate in intellect, Robert Toombs. 
 
 A State like this, so grand in its beginning and so splendid in its 
 h;uulrcd and fifty years of ]in)s]ierous history, must be proud of 
 its henjes, wliether fit — 
 
 For anus and warlike amenaucc, 
 Or else tor wise and civil governance, 
 To learn the interdeal of princes strange; 
 To mark the intent of eonncils, and tbe change 
 
 Of states. 
 
 Her annals are shining with tlie names of De Soto, Kaleigli, and 
 Oglethorjie ; and the names of their successors imder conditions of 
 later days detract nothing from the luster of their worth and 
 renown. 
 
 Tu cinulalf the fame of Ilortensius, king of tiic forum, Cicero 
 never ceased his ctlbrts till he ascended the throne of oratory. So 
 in this imrivalcd galaxy of gifted (Jeorgians. Enndation made 
 ambition reach high. From sire to son the names of eminent 
 Georgians appear again and again, showing the elevating incentives 
 which enlivened and exalted this im])crial State of the South. The 
 gold in lier liills, the silver on the cotton-pod, the sun with its 
 balm, tiie rivers which flow fri)m her mountains, the opulence of 
 her st)il,are not more Georgian and imju'rial than the high standard 
 of those who gave Georgia to the world as a colony, preserved her 
 independence of England, brought her through fire into the federa- 
 tion of States, and after the vicissitudes of a great civil trial rescued 
 her first among the recusant States from the chaos of war. 
 
 The Senator wc meet to honor wa.s no exception to the emula- 
 tion and exaltation of his surroundings. His natural ardors and 
 ambitions thus received their stimulus and food. Mut the mass- 
 ive mind which made the great advocate and the moral heroism 
 which made the defender of individual and civil liberties — these 
 are of no soil; they belong to no time. They illustrate the age of 
 Aristides and give a glory to the fiime of Rienzi. They made 
 Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry i)ossible, not as provincial men, 
 but as enlarged and loving patriots. 
 
ADD 11 ESS OF J//i'. COX, OF SETV YORK. 99 
 
 « 
 
 He mIio would best portray tlio salient features of Bex.tamix 
 Harvey Hili^ nuist remeniher tliat liis devotion to Georyia was 
 but the stepping-stone to a broader and loftier devotion to tliat 
 Union wliieli he loved to serve in our eonncils iiere. 
 
 The peo|)le of New York City liave not yet forgotten tlie ring- 
 ing periods of Senator Hill, in one of her halls, as he discoursed 
 of the magna eliarta and otiier preeious monuments of popular lib- 
 erty. To his impassioned utterance his fine frame and musical 
 voice gave a charm beyond the reach of art. 
 
 His State love was, sir, after all, the golden key wliich uidocked 
 the secrets of his grand elocution and oiK'ned the casket wlierein 
 were the jewels of his spleudid imagery. 
 
 When the M'ar had ended, and his State was in the grasp of un- 
 principled adveutiu'ers and under the heel of an unbridled satrapy, 
 and in the chaos wrought by the war, he gave to tlie reconstruction 
 acts his defiance, and hurled liis anathemas against its spoilers. 
 
 In 1868 he went among his people with thestrideof a demi-god. 
 He fired their hearts, and though surrounded by bayonets and 
 threatened by bastiles, he uttered such sarcasm, scorn, and daunt- 
 less defiance that the satraps who outraged every canon of law and 
 impulse of liberty shrank from their liat(>ful work in the very 
 midst of a conquered people. 
 
 Since the w"ar ended we know something of his Federal service 
 and career. The gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Kasson] has truly 
 given us some rare sentences of fidelity to tlie Union. One sen- 
 tence he di<l not quote, which I well remember: "'This is our 
 father's house. We have returned to it — to stay!" In liope and 
 despair; in and out of his party, in his place of business, in the 
 fonini of his love, the bar, and outside upon the platform, the same 
 iieroic altitude he illustrated to the end gave him power to combat 
 the enemies of local and constitutional liberty. Xo weakness called 
 on him for championship that he did not respond. His State was 
 lifted up out of the reconstruction mire into the life and vigor of a 
 new birth under the impulses of his eloquence. He gave her beauty 
 for ashes. Under his magic wand a new Atlantis — such as ]>acon 
 loved to picture — arose above the tide of desolation ; and a new 
 Atlanta, with its goblin of steam and its energies, was recreated 
 
100 LIFE AXD CASRACTER OF BESJAillX B. HILL. 
 
 under the ribs of death. Muteliless in liis winged woi'd.s and fear- 
 less in his eonsumniate bravery, he stopped at no jwst of trust until 
 he became tiie foremost Georgian at this Federal center; and in the 
 flower of his genius he laid down his eventful life with a Christian 
 resiirnation and devotion onlv next to that of the niartvred Polv- 
 carp. 
 
 I doubt, Ml'. Speaker, if ever man suffered in the flesh as this 
 man. It would not be fitting here to dcscrii)e tiie details of tliat 
 mortal maladv and those surtrieal asiouies that racked him so long 
 and so terribly. He perished day by day, hopelessly perishing 
 with a pain which only his Cliristiau fortitude relieved. Out of 
 his torture at lengtii came deliverance ; and in the middle of August 
 last his courage yielded, but yieldetl only to death. 
 
 WJien the great Frcnchnian Gambetta wa,s agonized by his dis- 
 ease he cried out, " It is useless to dissemble. I welcome death as a 
 relief" This was the end of one of Plutarchiau mold ; but it was 
 not the end of our beloved American statesman. Amid the tender 
 farewells of ids wife and family, with a ])atience sanctified on high 
 and a faith which "endured as seeing Him who is invisible," this 
 more than classic hero, this gentle follower of the meek and lowly 
 One, sought consolation, courage, and hope in his faith. His last 
 words, as given to his pastor, and repeated by my friends from 
 . N'irginia [Mr. Tucker] and from Texas [Mr. Wellborn], were, 
 "Almost home." 
 
 It is an illustration of the sympathy and loving kindness which 
 make the cond'orts of home so tender and elotinent that two gentle- 
 men have most toucliingly referretl tothe.se last words. r>iit to me 
 they have a double, almost personal, meaning. 
 
 I renuMuber after the war, with a tenderness all too genth' for 
 words, the first grei'tino-s 1 reci'ivcd from this Senator. He was 
 jilcased that I had aided to defeat, by a speech based on the consti- 
 tutional clause as to attainder of treason, the attempt to take more 
 than the life estate, /. c, the fee-simple, which belonged Xo the in- 
 nocent children of the South. I had, he said, tlniught of the future 
 homes of the South. That was our first bond of frieudsliij). 
 
 Home! best of all solaces, without whose .social benignities and 
 aflectionate sweet ness all the learning, eloquence, wit, lore, and re- 
 
JDItRESS OF iin. COX OF XEIl' TOUK. \()[ 
 
 iiown of men fade away. His own sweet lioine! In tlie midst of 
 liis own beloved circle, tlie iiiiniortal spirit looked to that home 
 beyond in the mansion not made with hands. Yes! oh, yes! he 
 was almost there — his heaveidy home — where pain no longer tor- 
 tnres, where the world has no temptation and the grave no terror, 
 where, with the loved ones gone before and the love<l ones to follow, 
 he would join in the song of the Lamb forever! 
 
 In conclusion : It remains for us that we should so live that we 
 be neither surprised, nor leave our duties imperfect, nor our sins 
 uncanceled, nor our persons nnreconcih'd, nor frod unappcasi'd ; hut 
 that when we descend to our graves we may rest in the bosom of 
 the Lord till the mansions be pre])ared, where we will sing and 
 fea.st eternally. Amen! Tv Demn Ittmlainns. 
 
 This would be the language of onr departed friend from his 
 home al)ove, as it is the admonition of sweet Jeremy Taylor in his 
 " Holy Living and Dying." It comes from beyond the tomb. 
 
 To the ili'ail he savetli. Arise ! 
 
 To the liviiij;, FoUow Me ! 
 Ami that voiee still souiideth ou 
 Kroiu the ceuturies that are gone, 
 
 To the centuries that shall lie. 
 
 Mr. Ha-MMdM), of Georgia. As lias been rcmarkt'd, Mr. 
 Speaker, by the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Kasson], tliere were 
 several gentlemen on each side of the House wlio were to have 
 spoken to-day in memory of the late distinguishwl Senator, but 
 who were unavoidably compelled to be absent on this occasion. I 
 ask for them, informally, the privilege of printing in the Record 
 such remarks as they may .see projier to in.sert in this coiuiection. 
 
 The Spe.vkki!. There is no objection to the request of the gen- 
 tleman from Georgia. 
 
 The question is on agreeing to the resolutions which have been 
 read. 
 
 The resolutions wci'c nnaninioiisiy agreed to ; and in jinrsuance 
 theretif the House (at 4 o'clock and •")() minutes p. m.) adjourned. 
 
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